Chuck vs The New Life
by Indigogold
Summary: Chuck and Sarah meet in high school for the first time, except that Chuck is the new boy. His life is turned upside down when he accidently uploads his father's intersect. He and Sarah are then forced to go on the run. Totally AU story, romance adventure!
1. Chapter 1

**This story is completely AU. But you'll notice mostly all the characters from Chuck feature in this in some way or another. My sole aim really (besides action, drama and adventure) is to bring Charah together. Happy reading!**

Chuck gazed longingly out of the window, trying to catch one final glimpse of his former life. Ellie looked anxiously at her brother beside her, his indecipherable expression worried her immensely. His warm chocolate eyes seemed to darken as she drove onwards.. Towards their new home in Burbank with their father. She often wondered if she had made the right decision moving them back to the man that left them years ago, but she had no choice.

Their mother had mysteriously left them only a few months ago with such feeble excuses that her children didn't really know the true reason why she had left. Though they were considerably past their child years now, it didn't stop them feeling the gut wrenching pain of abandonment.

Chuck didn't want to start his life over again, he was nearly seventeen, and it was too late to do such things. He felt that he was old enough to live on his own, but Ellie strongly disagreed. She had to do this, because she didn't have the money to support Chuck on her own, she was struggling herself to get through college. Chuck being Chuck, of course, he understood. It was her love for her little brother that pushed her to do this and nothing else.

It was hard for Chuck to say goodbye to his friends, the hardest thing he'd ever had to do. He didn't want to think about that at that moment, it hurt too much to think of all the things he left behind and the new life that he was about to face.

"Are you okay, Chuck?" Ellie asked, her wide eyes probing.

He was silent for a moment before parting his lips to answer. "Yeah, I'm fine El, don't worry - we'll be okay, won't we?"

"Of course we will. You know I'm only doing this for you, I can't support us financially on my own anymore, and we need Dad." She sighed.

"I know, I know. I'm not mad at you for doing this, but it won't stop me from missing my friends. I'll get over it, though." He admitted honestly.

"You'll meet new friends." She replied positively.

"Sure I will." He said simply, he pulled down the mirror above him and checked his reflection briefly. _Yeah, I'll certainly make friends looking like this. _He thought sarcastically, eyeing his brown spiraling hair sweeping over half of his forehead, he looked into his own big, mahogany eyes and sighed when he saw the gleaming silver braces on his top set of teeth. _They're going to hate me_, his thoughts taunted him as he imagined his lanky frame towering over most of the students in school.. He wasn't going to go unnoticed at that height.

Somewhere along in the journey, Chuck fell asleep and when his eyes opened again he was shocked by the unfamiliar surroundings. Burbank was dazzlingly bright and sunny; it was full of endless beautiful beaches and beautiful people. Chuck already felt as though he didn't belong.

Chuck and Ellie eventually found their new home. He braced himself as he got out of the car and came face to face with Stephen Bartowski, his face was older than Chuck remembered. His eyes crinkled as he smiled gently as his son and daughter, the lines around his eyes seemed to increase as he did this. Chuck greeted him quietly before walking into the house pulling his only suitcase behind him.

Later on, when they were settled, Chuck found out that he was starting school in just two days' time at Burbank High School. He didn't even have time to prepare himself, mentally. Stephen looked at Chuck as they were eating around the table, he sighed to himself, Chuck wasn't happy. He was going to do all he could to change that.

"I need to go and do some work in my study." Stephen said, standing up which caused a long, echoing squeak on the laminate floor from his chair.

"What kind of work do you do.. Ste-Dad?" Ellie corrected herself.

"I fix computers, privately. I set up my own little company, it's doing quite well but some problems on computers are really difficult to solve so I need time." He looked at Ellie's intrigued expression before adding. "And also peace and quiet."

Chuck and Ellie nodded in unison. Later that night after Ellie had gone to bed at a sensible hour, Chuck put down his comic book when he heard an unusual noise. It sounded like a gentle tinkling, but it was gradually getting louder. He stood up and slowly tiptoed away from the living room and towards his father's study. Unfortunately for Chuck's avid curiosity, the door was shut properly. He was about to give up when he noticed a small beam of light exit a part of the door and it shone on to the wall opposite.

He frowned slightly but then he noticed a hole in the door, he tried to kneel down without being clumsy and for once, he managed to keep his balance in check. He closed one eye and waited for his eyes to focus properly on what he was seeing. He saw several large computers attached to the wall, and beneath them he could see his father typing away on a small laptop at a dizzyingly fast speed. He noticed a small symbol on the screen of one of the monitors, but he couldn't fathom where he remembered it from. It would come back to him.

He wandered to his new bedroom, feeling dazed and confused. To him, that didn't look like ordinary computer fixing study. He would find out, he decided. Feeling like he had just experienced the longest day in the world, Chuck let his heavy lids fall shut.

A few days later, it was time for Chuck to get back to reality. He was about to start his new high school. Before he left, Chuck spent a worryingly long time deciding what to wear. He didn't want to look like a Class A nerd, but he also didn't want to look like the World's biggest douche. Finally, he decided to play it safe with a plain black T-shirt teamed with his newest pair of converses.

His stomach was swirling as he tried – and failed to eat his breakfast. He idly threw his bowl in the sink and called a weak goodbye to his father. Ellie had already left. The distance to his new high school was surprisingly short, much to Chuck's chagrin. He saw some other potential students eyeing him as he staggered into the school grounds; he felt the excited buzz as he entered. The students were all chatting to each other excitedly as it was the first day back at school after the summer vacation.

A short while later, after Chuck had visited the principal's office and gotten his timetable, he found himself in the noisy homeroom. He sat next to a rather skinny young boy who was arguably very short for his age; he had a helmet of brown hair and a tiny bit of wispy stubble to match. Chuck pulled out his timetable as the teacher took the register and found that he had English first. He loathed that topic, his favorite was the one in which he got to work with computers.

The skinny boy was eyeing him as he scrutinized his timetable. His wide eyes assessed Chuck before he decided to speak to him. It was the comic book that was poking out of Chuck's bag that made the decision for him.

"Hi." His surprisingly high voice squeaked out.

"Hey." Chuck gave a nervous half grin, revealing his almost straight train-tracked teeth.

"What's your name?" He wondered.

"Chuck Bartowski." Chuck stated almost robotically.

"Bartowski?" His thickly set eyebrows shot up. "That sounds italian, are you Italian?"

"No I'm a hundred percent Canadian… I can assure you." He replied. "What's your name?"

"Morgan Grimes." He smiled. "We can stick together."

Chuck instantly liked this kid, he was friendly and he seemed to radiate a certain happy vibe that seemed to already wash over Chuck. "Are you in my English?" He asked Morgan.

"Let me see." Morgan quickly looked over his newest friend's timetable. "Ah, sorry no dude. You have Mrs Kennedy ."

"Why are you making that face?" He replied, noticing Morgan's lips pull down at the corners.

"She is the devil dude, seriously."

The bell suddenly went, Chuck was about to find out for himself. A few minutes later after a rather embarrassing introduction, he was placed next to a very arrogant looking boy. Chuck soon found out that his name was Bryce Larkin and clearly loved himself, though Chuck could see why. His shining mop of hair swept over his piercing blue eyes that seemed to capture the attention of nearly every girl in the classroom.

He listened intently during the lesson, not wanting to get off on the wrong foot on his first day in the new school. He struggled to see the board as a golden haired girl blocked his view. Feeling rather brave, Chuck tapped her gently on the shoulder. He swore that he saw her flinch.

When she turned around, Chuck's breath caught in his throat. He came face to face with the most beautiful girl he had ever cast eyes on. Her eyes looked into his for a moment, blue and hypnotic framed by a set of long dark lashes. He marveled over her translucently clear skin and how perfectly her dazzlingly blonde hair fell on her shoulders. He thought of all this in less than a few seconds.

He nearly forgot what he was going to say. "I- erm.. Can you move your head slightly please, I can't erm.. see." He wondered why he had suddenly turned into a babbling idiot.

Her expression clouded slightly for a moment, she felt a feeling of familiarity wash over her. She was certain she had never met this new boy, but she had the strongest sense of deja-vu. "Sure." She replied, bewildered by their little exchange.

When she turned back around, Chuck tried to gather his scattered thoughts and focus back on the lesson. He tried but failed to think of anything other than the angel sitting in front of him.

Towards the end of the lesson, Bryce grew impatient with sitting still and decided to continuously poke the girl in front of him.

She turned around and Chuck struggled to look away from her venomous expression, directed at him.

Chuck shook his head slowly. "It wasn't me." He shrugged, his eyes motioning towards Bryce.

"Bryce, would you mind keeping your hands to yourself?" She spat.

"Sarah, how can you expect anyone to keep their hands off you? You're so hot." Bryce said seductively, moving his hands towards her again.

Sarah gripped his wrist and twisted it into an awkward position, causing him to groan inwardly. "Piss off, Larkin." She said, noticing the curly haired innocent looking boy beside him staring at her with a slightly awed expression. She wondered why people did that sometimes, it made her feel like she was being shoved into the spotlight when she longed to be put into a corner in the darkness.

By lunchtime it became crystal clear to Chuck on his place in the school. He was a nerd.. but he felt extremely lucky to have found a friend so easily in Morgan. They had so many similar interests and he was really easy to get along with. So, being at the bottom of the high school food chain Chuck quickly noticed the hierarchy system in which the students operated in. Bryce Larkin and his ridiculously good-looking minions were at the top and his girlfriend, Jill Roberts and her gang. Then, were the ordinary people, then the nerds and such. He noticed that Sarah didn't really have a designated group that she hung around with. When she was sitting with people, she didn't appear to really interact in their conversations - she seemed to be in a world of her own.

Over the next few days, Chuck found himself longing to see what was behind Sarah's mysterious exterior. He wondered why he often thought about her when he hadn't said more than a few words to her. Soon though, he quickly came to the conclusion that he had somehow developed a crush on her.

He found himself having a discussion with Morgan about her a few weeks later, whilst staring at her from across the canteen.

"Chuck, stop staring at her." Morgan warned him.

"At who?" Chuck mumbled innocently.

"Sarah Walker." His eyebrows moved downwards.

"I'm not."

"You are, Chuck."

"Fine, I was. What's it to you?" Chuck suddenly got quite defensive.

"You have a crush on her, don't you?"

Chuck sighed. "Can you blame me?"

"No. But you do understand that it is never, ever going to happen, right?" Morgan said honestly.

This pained him to hear this, even though he knew it was true. "I know, but I can't help it, man. She's so beautiful..." Chuck blushed slightly.

"My advice would be to get over it, dude and fast. It's not going to get you anywhere." He said wisely.

"I know." He buried his head in his hands and gave a deep, long sigh and groaned afterwards.

That night after Chuck got home from school, he found that neither his father nor sister were home. A note on the table stated that they were going to pick up dinner from the supermarket. He sat around for a bit finishing off his homework and tying up some loose ends. Eventually though, the curiosity he felt got the better of him and he crept over to his father's study.

He wiggled his hand on the door handle but soon discovered that it was locked. After some searching he found a spare key hidden in his father's room. When he finally entered the small room he was startled by the number of computers his father had. He opened the laptop that his father had been working on only a few weeks ago and by answering the security question on it, he was in.

He saw one file on the computer. It was named 'The Intersect', taking a deep breath; he clicked on the file and tried to get rid of the nervous feeling that was overriding his body. Suddenly, he saw pictures, lots and lots of images that seemed to hypnotize him. He felt like all thoughts had exited his brain and his mind suddenly felt very, very heavy. It was taking over, the images started to move faster and faster until the screen was completely blank. Chuck looked daze a moment before falling unconsciously to the floor.

**What did you think? Please let me know and ****review!**** From now on I'm going to try respond to every review made. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Thank you for the amazing reviews I received, I really appreciate it! I hope you liked this chapter; it's quite long by my standards! I used to think writing 1,500 words was a lot, phew! **_

**Chapter 2**

Chuck gradually came around and he sat up slowly in bewilderment. His brain felt like it was actually aching, he clutched his forehead in his hands. Eventually he remembered what had happened, but he was still just as confused about it. Suddenly though, he knew he had to get out of there and try to erase any trace of his presence in the study.

He put the laptop back where he found it and closed the document he had clicked on, he prayed it was enough. He shouldn't have come in his father's private room. He didn't know what had happened to him; his only explanation was that he had passed out because he had been nervous.

Chuck then crept out of the room and put the key back to where he had discovered it. His headache was getting worse; he strode to the kitchen where he gratefully took some aspirin. He fell asleep on the sofa quickly after and was woken when his sister and father walked in laden with groceries and with smiles plastered on their faces. Chuck frowned. How could his sister forget so quickly that this man left them when they were small? Just like their mother had done not so long ago.

It was going to take a while for Chuck's deep emotional wounds to heal. Stephen gave Chuck a strange look as he placed the items on the kitchen counter. His eyes scrutinized him suspiciously as he began putting pasta into a saucepan. Something was off with his son and he knew it. How often did a teenage boy fall asleep after coming home from school?

Later, when Ellie and Chuck were both in their rooms, Stephen went to his study and sensed something different. He opened his laptop but everything looked as he had left it. With a relieved sigh, he shut it again. He was getting too paranoid.

The very next day, Chuck felt marginally better. On his way to school, he heard a high pitched squeal coming from somewhere behind him. His head whipped around and shot from side to side but he couldn't see anything. Instinctually, he followed the now muffled sounds and found himself down the alleyway opposite his school.

Cautiously, he peered around the corner and felt anger and disgust surge through him at the same time. He saw Bryce pushing Sarah up against the wall, trying to kiss her. Sarah was squirming away, but Chuck could see that Bryce was stronger, he could hear him talking.

"Come on, baby. I saw the look you gave me; I know you want me Walker." He said, his tone teasing.

"Bryce, get off me! I wouldn't kiss you if you were the last guy on earth." She almost grunted.

"Stop playing hard to get." He taunted her, pulling her wrists either side of her face and forcing his lips on hers. He whispered in her ear, "Jill has nothing on you."

"Get off her!" Chuck uncharacteristically snarled, moving closer to them.

"Why?" Bryce's crazy blue eyes mocked him.

"Because she doesn't want you. Do you, Sarah?" Chuck said bravely.

"No." She panted, her eyes pleading with Chuck's. She hated feeling so weak and defenseless but she wasn't anywhere as near as strong as Bryce.

"So you're going to stop me, are you nerd?" He hissed.

Chuck felt a blazing hot rage explode through his body, his body almost ignited with his anger. Suddenly Bryce moved away from Sarah and she scurried backwards, he moved towards Chuck, his fists balled and ready for action.

Just as he was about to sock a punch in Chuck's jaw, Chuck's mind went blank and all of a sudden, he saw lots of images together flashing through his mind like a film. A split second later, he wasn't afraid. He knew what he was doing, Bryce threw a punch at him and he caught his fist before it reached his face. With an adorable half smile, Chuck delivered a roundhouse kick to Bryce's face and it left him groaning on the floor.

Chuck let his gaze fall to Sarah; he was both interested and surprised by her awed expression. Her mouth was hanging open with shock and her blue eyes were so wide that Chuck could practically spy a whole ocean in them.

"Let's get away from here." Chuck said abruptly, grabbing Sarah's arm and pulling them away from the alleyway. They ran until they were back on the path towards school. They walked in silence for a moment before Sarah spoke.

"Thank you for doing that." She said quietly, her cheeks growing increasingly crimson by the second.

"I wasn't just going to let him do that to you. He's a weirdo, seriously." His eyes grew distant and faraway for a moment, before he looked back into her eyes and savored the feeling he got when he did this.

"I know. How did you do that though? That karate thing... You don't look the type to do that." She admitted.

"I..." Chuck didn't know how to explain to Sarah when he didn't even know the truth himself. "I just learnt a bit of self-defense a few years ago." He lied smoothly.

"Well it came in handy." She beamed at him, but then slowly, she seemed to retreat back into her shell and her face became blank and composed again. "Well thanks anyway, Chuck.. I gotta run." She walked away quickly, her shoulders were up defensively and her eyes were fixed to the floor.

"Bye then!" Chuck shouted after her and then he sighed to himself and carried onwards to school. He wondered to himself about what had just come over him, a very angry part of him seemed to take over when he was fighting Bryce. Suddenly he had known things he had never been taught. It frightened him to think about it, so he gave a small shake of his head and tried to forget about it.

He spent his entire first English lesson picturing Sarah's face when had she beamed up at him gratefully. Her beautiful eyes looking into his like he was her favorite person in the world. He sighed to himself when he thought, quite logically, that he probably didn't even cross her mind. His eyes turned glazed and dreamy as he pictured them both walking together side by side earlier that day, it was as easy a breathing. Once more, he wondered why he thought of her so often when he hardly knew her at all.

After English, Chuck had an unendurable bout of double maths. Despite his obvious intelligence, maths wasn't really his forte either. He could do most of it, but the rest was just gibberish to him, a foreign language. Morgan sat next to him, babbling away like there was no tomorrow.

"Chuck, I've been hearing all morning that Bryce Larkin has got it in for you." Morgan said curiously.

"Really? Why?" Chuck said sarcastically.

"You tell me." He replied equally as sarcastically.

"You haven't heard yet?"

"Well, I've heard things but I've been waiting for you to tell me yourself. You are after all, my best friend." Morgan said quietly.

"Really?" Chuck felt a little warm glow within himself. "Well, not much happened really. I was on my way to school when I saw Bryce forcing himself on Sarah. So I told him to get off her, he wouldn't listen so I kind of... accidently kicked him in the face." He shrugged his shoulders apologetically.

"Jesus Christ! Did you really?" He was astonished.

"Yeah."

"Everyone's talking like you're the next Jackie Chan. I had no idea you knew karate!" Morgan grinned excitedly.

"I don't... It was only self-defense." Chuck squirmed awkwardly, not wanting to revisit the earlier events of that day.

"You must feel brilliant - being Sarah's knight in shining armor."

"I don't, I feel embarrassed. To be honest, she looked really freaked out after I did it." Chuck said honestly.

"I was probably because you went from nerd to ninja in about thirty seconds. She's strange, that one, Chuckles. Ever since we first started here, she's always been quiet and distant. She's often off for long periods of time. Naturally, every guy in the school has come on to her, including myself, and... Nothing. For someone so beautiful, she's kinda robotic." He finished off his last quadratic equation as he said this and threw his pen down on top of his book, giving Chuck his undivided attention.

"I don't really care about any of that. I think it's her mysteriousness that draws me to her." Chuck rested his hand in his palm and gave a deep sigh full of optimism and longing.

"Excuse me? Mr. Bartowski, do you have something you'd like to share with the class?" Mr. Keyes, the incredibly moody teacher said, his thick monobrow furrowing.

"No.." He said quietly. "_Mr__.__ Monobrow." _He said under his breath, causing the people who sat near to him to silently stifle their giggles.

The lesson he had before dinner time was French - the second class that day that he shared with Sarah, but also Bryce Larkin and his most arrogant friend, Robby Wilcox. Together, in that lesson they never stopped shouting out and misbehaving. Chuck also found this lesson unbearable as he sat next to a very irritating Indian Jewish kid called Lester.

Chuck gazed at Sarah from across the classroom and wondered what she was thinking. For a second she looked back at him, and she felt her already weak stomach flip so many times that it made her feel sick. She surprised herself by thinking lately how much she loved his dark chestnut curls and his warm, expectant brown eyes that seemed to always light up, this was usually followed by a cute half smile.

Sarah thought about earlier that day, and how scared she had felt when Bryce decided to make her his latest prey. Then, all of a sudden when she had been trying desperately to flee from his grasp, she saw the curly haired cupid who somehow made her heart beat a thousand paces faster than it already had been. She tried to focus on the lesson but found herself trying very hard not to stare in Chuck's direction. What the hell was happening to her?

The French teacher, Madame Eliz found that Chuck Bartowski wasn't listening to her. She despised people who didn't listen, they deserved to be embarrassed.

She started speaking to him in fluent furious French. Suddenly though, Chuck felt the all too familiar feeling overtake his mind, suddenly he saw lots of French pictures, words and phrases. In a split second, he had come back to reality and somehow he could understand every single word that his teacher was saying.

"You're the most pathetic student I have ever seen. I don't know why you even took French you're so bad at it... You don't even listen to me, you stupid boy." She said, smug in the fact that no one could understand her speaking so fluently in another language.

"Excuse me." Chuck spoke in French. "I am not a stupid boy, I was listening I just zoned out for a moment there, okay? Sorry but sometimes students have other things on their minds, woman!"

A shocked silence fell in the classroom; people were staring at Chuck with new eyes. Madame Eliz stared at him dumbfounded, she had no idea. She was beyond shocked, how badly she had misjudged this boy, he was going to be her best student!

"You can have detention after school for speaking to me like that, it was very good French though." She mumbled, her language returned to English.

Sarah stared at Chuck openly, bewildered by his sudden array of talents.

Chuck was beyond freaked out. What the hell was happening to him? How did he suddenly know karate and French? Why were there pictures flashing in his mind? He had so many questions, but finally he realized that his father's laptop must have done something to him. But how could a program on a computer make him know all this? It was unthinkable... Impossible.

He spent the rest of the lesson in a daze and so did most of the class. Who was this new kid?

Chuck managed to get through the rest of the lesson and in a blink of an eye, it was lunchtime. He met up with Morgan and they sat in the canteen, both of them lost in their own thoughts.

"Chuck... hello? Chuck." He heard a beautiful voice say.

"Oh. Sorry, yeah?" He looked up to see Sarah looking down at him, holding her tray of food and placing it next to his.

"Can I sit here for a sec? I just want to talk to you quickly." Judging by her beyond nervous expression, it wasn't something she did often so Chuck shifted over as Morgan's jaw dropped and his eyes widened.

"Yeah, that's fine." Chuck stuttered. "Morg, buddy, do you mind giving us a minute?"

Morgan looked hurt for a moment, but then he nodded and sauntered off with his tray, with his jaw trailing behind him.

"I'm sorry about the way I acted this morning." Sarah spoke slowly, as if she was choosing every word especially for him. Chuck nodded in encouragement as she continued. "I... I know that I didn't seem very grateful, but I was."

"You don't need to apologize, Sarah. I knew you were grateful anyway, your eyes told me that." He laughed nervously.

"My eyes?" Sarah repeated.

"You know what they say; the eyes are the windows to the soul." What was he saying? Why was he babbling so nervously all of a sudden?

"Uh... Yeah." She didn't know why but she found it adorable when he got nervous and spoke quickly. "Well thank you again, Larkin hasn't come near me today, so for that I am grateful."

"He hasn't come near me either, he didn't even trip me up in the hall today like he usually does." Chuck admitted.

"'Cause you're the new tough kid on the block." Sarah found herself genuinely smiling at him, it felt good, to smile, like the sun was finally shining on her.

"I don't think so." He shook his head.

"I do, Larkin was top of the food chain before. But now that you beat him up, that means that you are the new top dog."

"Woof." He laughed, he accidently brushed her arm whilst doing this and he felt shivers going down his spine, exploding on to the rest of his body, causing him to break out in a mass of goosebumps.

"You make me laugh." Sarah found herself saying.

"Well, I'm a funny guy." He felt a strange feeling coursing through his body when she said this.

"Clearly." She founded herself beaming and leaning towards him, when she noticed she was doing this she moved away and got up. "I gotta go and meet a friend, Chuck, see you around."

"Bye." He said, feeling rather away with the fairies when she stood up and walked away. When she looked back they shared a long moment of gazing into each other's eyes before looking away eventually and feeling of the electricity in the air between them frazzled out when their gazes reached the floor.

Morgan came back to the table and sat down slowly, shaking his head. "Wow, I didn't really believe it... but it's true!"

"Didn't believe what?" Chuck looked at Morgan with a confused expression.

"That you were into her! But you have it bad, man, and real bad." He said.

"Oh God, Morgan. " Chuck froze. "Is it that obvious?"

"Maybe not to her, but I can see it, as clear as day."

When the final bell went for the end of the day, Chuck stumbled out of the school gates after an hour of French detention, due to speaking to his teacher in a rather unfriendly manner, regardless of the fact it was in another language.

He lifted his eyes from the cobbled floor for a second and was very surprised to see Sarah sitting on the bench opposite the gates, her head resting on her palms.

"Sarah?" He said, shocked.

"Uh huh?" She said, sitting up.

"What are you doing, sitting there?" He asked, cocking his head to the side.

"I was waiting for you; I figured we could walk home together because you only live a few streets away from me." She looked away from him nervously.

He felt very happy at this revelation of hers. He couldn't believe a girl like her had been waiting a whole hour after school, for him, Chuck Bartowski. He had never even spoken to anyone as beautiful as her before but for some reason he didn't feel intimidated. He felt that he had this magical instant connection with her. "You waited a whole hour for me?" He surprised himself by saying exactly what he had been thinking.

She stood up and they started walking in the direction their homes. "Yeah, it's the least I could do after what you did for me this morning." Usually she felt so tall in comparison to everyone but standing next to Chuck she felt small and feminine.

"Seriously, Sarah, it was nothing." He said, feeling like it was all he had talked and thought about throughout the day. He was keen to change the subject.

"So, how come you moved here?" She asked, as he studied her face. She looked like she was actually, genuinely interested and again, a fuzzy, happy glow penetrated the depths of his soul.

"Well, it's kind of complicated but I'll give you the basics." His eyes looked kind of shifty for a moment, like he was uncomfortable, but then his eyes unclouded, like a golden sun appearing after a thunderstorm. "When I was little, my Dad left my sister, my mother and I. Then, not so long ago my mother left us too, so Ellie couldn't look after us on our own so she located our father and now we're living with him again."

Sarah felt her heart thumping in sympathy for him, it was strange to feel her heart going crazy, most of the time it was a thing she never even noticed. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Chuck." And she found that she really was.

"It was hard at first, being ditched by both parents and then having to go back to one, but my sister has always been there for me." He was a bit weirded out about how open he was being with her, but to him it was a natural instinct to be so chatty with people.

"I can't imagine how hard that would be." She shook her head and was quite surprised to see that they were close to where they lived.

Chuck took a long breath in, inhaling the fresh air around him, almost stopping to admire the darkening sky, he loved how the orange contrasted with the blue and how they danced together on the horizon. A beautiful view, but then when he looked back at Sarah he found that there was no comparison, she was far more magnificent than any sight he had ever seen. "What about you then, what's your big secret, Sarah?"

"Well..." She took a deep breath, she hated talking about herself. "I live with my Dad, too. He goes away sometimes on business, so I often go with him." She kept it brief, hoping Chuck wouldn't push her on the topic.

"I've heard you've been off a lot. What about your mother?" He asked.

Her blue eyes seemed to turn to the exact shade of the blackening sky. "She and my Dad split up, I left with my Dad when I was about seven."

"Oh, so I guess that's both of us from broken homes then, huh?" He felt like he could feel the electricity zinging in the air between them, as he accidently moved closer to her, the electricity intensified and he swore a static radiated between them.

"Yeah." She felt it too, and it shocked her but she found that she liked the feeling.

"You're so mysterious, Sarah." He said when they got to his house, he looked into her eyes and he was searching for something but he didn't know what, she looked at him with her top two teeth resting gently on her lip, but she didn't say anything. "Anyway, this is me." He said gesturing towards his house.

"Bye." She whispered feebly, walking away it took every ounce in her body not to look back at his bright, expectant face.

"Goodbye, Sarah." He whispered after her, feeling a terrible sense of longing for her.

Later on, in the night Stephen made his way to his study and opened his laptop for the first time in twenty four hours, which was a long time for him. Everything looked normal until he clicked on his much revised internet document. The Intersect had already been uploaded, it said. Surely there had been a mistake, he checked again, panicking. Chuck or Ellie hadn't even entered his study, he was certain. The Intersect he had spent so long on had now vanished, someone had uploaded it, stolen it. Five whole years, gone... Who knew about its' existence though?

He made a rash decision and dialed quickly on his phone. "General." He spoke quickly. "The Intersect has been stolen."

**Please let me know what you thought of this chapter, I know this was a reasonably quick update but I have a lovely month of important exams coming up so I'll try updating as fast as I can. Please ****review****! Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Stephen paced back and forth, his mind circling with many viscous thoughts as he did this. He wondered if he had made the right decision, phoning the General directly but he knew that if the Intersect had gotten into the wrong hands then the future could be dire for the CIA/NSA. He had been told that someone would come to investigate the following day; they couldn't come out as soon as he called due to the late hour and due to his children obliviously sleeping only a few rooms away.

The next day as Chuck wandered to school he wondered if the strange things going on in his head were going to stop. He also wondered if Sarah would speak to him today too, that possible thought alone was enough to make Chuck want to sprint to school at a thousand miles an hour.

He passed the alleyway where he had 'saved' Sarah the previous day, he noticed that Bryce was there leaning against the wall, smoking. Along with Bryce were his two friends Robby Wilcox and Oscar Jackson and his Bryce's girlfriend, Jill Roberts. All of them gave him the death stare as he nervously strolled past, he thought they were going to kick his ass until he heard three words that made it even worse, "I'll get you later." Bryce's threat hung in the air like a foul stench as he continued.

Chuck suddenly hoped that his super abilities would make reappearance, he sighed to himself. He just wanted an ordinary, uneventful trip to school, but it seemed that that was impossible.

By the time he got into class, he was ready to go home again. Morgan came into class a few minutes later; he was walking rather awkwardly, his legs were at least a width apart as he stumbled to his seat. As he turned around Chuck noticed his underpants several inches higher than his jeans.

"Morgan, what happened?" Chuck wondered.

"Bryce Larkin." Morgan seethed.

"What did he do?" He looked at Morgan with concern.

"Well, I was walking past that god damn alleyway on my way to school and he and his friends were there. I tried walking past but him and his gang decided to surround me. Then they all gave me a wedgie and left me there. And... they told me that they were going to you and I later." Morgan babbled worriedly.

"Shit." Chuck breathed. "What the hell is that guy's problem? I don't understand."

"Maybe it's because you came between him and his lady." Morgan said, fiddling rather embarrassingly with his underpants.

"Like I was going to let him hurt her." Chuck shook his head slowly.

"Of course you wouldn't, but now Bryce Larkin has a grudge with you... And apparently now with me too."

"I didn't mean to drag you into anything." Chuck sighed.

"Don't worry, it's okay. Hey, look I've bought this awesome new video game, the only problem is... I'm a bit stuck on the controls, and the instructions are in Chinese." He pulled the video game out which had a picture of several mystical creatures on the front and the writing was entirely in Chinese. "Do you think I should send it back?"

Chuck felt his mind drifting again as he stared at the words before him and suddenly he found he was flashing again. That's what he called it because his mind flashed with so many different images. He understood perfectly now what the words meant, "Morgan why on God's green earth would you buy a game called Monster Pals?"

"Wha-huh?" His expression turned from confused to bewildered in an instant. "You know what it means?"

"Umm, yeah." He had no idea how.

"So you speak Chinese?" Morgan wondered.

"Apparently so." Chuck mumbled. "This games for kids, Morgan, little kids." He said as he read the back.

"Really?" He snatched the game from Chuck and looked properly.

"It says it's for four to eight year olds." Chuck stated.

"Well that's thirty dollars I'll never see again."

Chuck found he could do nothing that morning, but think of Sarah, he couldn't focus in any of his classes; all he could do was picture her face and her story-telling eyes. He knew that his crush on her was increasing vastly by the day. He found himself yearning just to spend even a second with her, he was desperate to lay eyes on her, but so far he hadn't seen her.

Lunch time eventually came and his eyes looked for her in the lunch hall. Morgan watched him, his eyes scrutinizing him.

"Chuck, man, I'm saying this because I'm a good friend. Stop thinking about Sarah, she isn't interested... She isn't interested in anyone." Morgan said, though it looked as though saying this pained him a little.

"She is! I know she is, I know what I'm doing... Don't worry about me, okay?" Chuck looked quite angry.

"Okay." Morgan repeated. Just as he was about to say something else, his mouth froze as he saw Sarah walking towards their table with her tray in her hands. Chuck looked to see what Morgan was looking at and was delightfully surprised to see Sarah, and even more so when she perched next to him with a huge smile on her face.

"Hey." She smiled.

"What are you uh... I mean why are you um... sitting next to me?" He didn't mean for it to come out so pathetically.

"Because... We're friends now right?" Sarah said, obviously uneasy with being so open.

"Yeah. Of course." Chuck muttered, though he wanted to be so much more, he wanted to be with her in a way that he couldn't understand. He wanted her with such a passion, it hurt. He wanted to hold her tight and never let her go, Sarah had no idea how hard it was for him to not throw himself at her in that instant.

"Hey." She said to Morgan. "It's Morgan, right?"

"Yeah." He sighed, giving her a long sideways glance, he'd only just found a best friend in Chuck, now this beach blonde beauty was going to steal Chuck away from him.

Sarah felt her temperature rising as Chuck's knee lightly brushed against hers, she felt a blush sweeping up her face like a forest fire, her heart was suddenly pounding in her chest and she found that she wanted to take his hand in hers and never let it go. She shook her head slowly as her father's words resounded in her head. _Being close to someone gets you hurt. You're smart if you stay away. _She found that she didn't want to listen to them like she usually did, for so long now she had never made a proper friend because of him, but now because of Chuck she wanted to change that.

"So how has your day been?" Chuck asked Sarah as Morgan looked on glumly.

"Not brilliant, Bryce tried it on with me again." She looked at the floor.

"Please tell me you're joking." Chuck seethed.

"I'm not." She wished she was joking, Bryce's persistent pestering was beginning to grate on her and it was starting to get her down. As if it wasn't enough with her home life, then she came to school and was very nearly sexually harassed by a seventeen year old pervert.

"What happened?" He asked.

"He stopped me on my way to class and tried to kiss me again, so I kicked him in the privates... Then he told me he was going to get me later." She said.

Chuck and Morgan sighed in unison. "He said that to us, too."

"Shit." She said under her breath. "I don't think you can protect me this time, Chuck, he's going to have his friends with him."

"I don't even know how I did it the last time." He said under his breath.

Sarah raised one perfect eyebrow. "Why don't we take a detour home?"

_We?_ Chuck felt his stomach flip; this walking home thing with Sarah seemed to be a permanent fixture now. "That would be a good idea."

"What about me?" Morgan piped up. "I live in the opposite direction."

"Doesn't your mom pick you up, dude?" Chuck laughed and found Sarah was giggling, too.

"Well... Yeah. But what if he gets me on the way to the car?" Morgan asked innocently.

"I'm sure he isn't that vicious, buddy. You'll be okay. I think it's really me and Sarah he is interested in." Chuck replied, trying to hide the smirk from his face.

The rest of the lunch time was spent with Chuck and Sarah talking and laughing, Morgan tried to intervene in the conversation, but even he could tell there was something special between them, an early unbreakable bond forming, like they were in their own little bubble. He also subconsciously noted the way they looked at each other; Chuck looked at Sarah in an adoring way, like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time. Sarah looked at Chuck almost tentatively, her expression soft and careful, but also openly in an awed way.

Chuck realized through the next afternoon that he hadn't really included Morgan in their conversation earlier, he just couldn't help feeling like they slipped into their own little world. He craved seeing her again, and he couldn't wait until their walk home together.

Meanwhile, Stephen was at home, hopelessly trying to figure out where his intersect project had vanished to. He had checked for every virus possible, it was impossible to get it back. Just as he was about to throw his computer at the wall, he heard a knock at his door.

He walked to it and opened it cautiously, he slowly came face to face with a man about his age, he was well built and tall with a shock of thick, silver hair and black glasses which were almost opaque.

"Hi." He said, his expression blank. "The General sent me here to find out some clues to where the..." He lowered his voice, "intersect might be."

"Can I see your badge?" Stephen asked, his tone even.

The man sighed and pulled a black wallet out of his pocket and flipped it open to reveal a seemingly valid CIA badge. "I'm Alfie Waters. I'm a CIA computer hacking specialist; I've been doing this job for the past thirty years."

"Right." Stephen's eyes were still narrowed suspiciously. "Code word?"

"Cornflower."

Stephen sighed and opened his door. "Follow me."

Alfie spent the next three hours trying to figure out what happened to the intersect, he typed away furiously but then, admitting defeat, he stood up and stepped tirelessly away from the monitor.

"I'm going to have to send someone else in." He said to Stephen.

"You can't figure it out? Even though you've been doing this for 'thirty years'?" He said, anger creeping into his voice.

"I'll be in touch as soon as I can." Alfie said.

Later on when school finally finished, Chuck waited impatiently for Sarah outside school, he wondered for a short while if she had suddenly decided to turn up and if she had actually realized what a failure and a nerd he was, of course she was too good for him. Suddenly his thoughts froze when he saw her walking towards him, he was enticed. Her tight jeans clung to her long legs as she strode closer to him, her eyes remained fixed on his, deep blue and mesmerizing, her long blonde hair blew with the wind. When she was close enough to him, he wanted to hold her tight, but resisted.

"Hey." She said softly, feeling her knees buckle slightly as she looked at him properly.

"Hi."

Sarah felt the familiar feeling of euphoria invade her body as they began their detoured route home. They agreed on taking the long way around just in case Bryce stuck to his promise.

"So you really don't have a favorite band?" Chuck said, both shocked and confused.

"I don't really listen to music." She admitted honestly.

"You. Don't. Listen. To. Music?" Chuck said slowly, his tone slightly hysterical.

"Music hasn't really been the top of my list." She smiled sexily.

"It's a part of life though... To me, life without music is pointless."

"I prefer to just read, go shopping, or go running." She felt an overwhelming urge to slip her hand into his.

"Fair enough. But you've never even heard of Nina Simone?" His eyes widened.

"Nope." As his hand swung back and forth, it brushed hers and she was about to give in and grab it when she heard a familiar, menacing voice.

"Hello, you two." Bryce said, with five or six other boys behind him.

"What do you want, Larkin?" Chuck almost growled.

"Go away." Sarah said.

"Not until I get my revenge on you, you humiliated me, Charlie boy, so I'm going to do the same to you." He snarled.

Chuck felt his heart pounding as Bryce and the other boys surrounded them. He felt as though they were in some predictable teenage movie, but this wasn't a movie, this was real life and he had to get Sarah home safe, one way or another.

One of the other boys gripped Sarah from behind and held her tight without budging even as she struggled to get free. Bryce came forward and delivered a punch right in Chuck's jaw, he gasped as pain shot across his face, Bryce kicked him in the stomach, and just as Chuck doubled over, one of the others whacked him across the back of the head so that he fell to the floor.

"Chuck!" Sarah shouted loudly. "Let him go you bastards!" She screamed as Chuck yelped in pain.

Bryce and two others stood over him, he forgot the people standing over them and looked past them and at Sarah, suddenly he flashed and before he knew it he was on his feet again. He flipped backwards and kicked two of them over in a blink of an eye. Then, he knocked out two more of them each with just one punch. He tripped up the one that help Sarah captive and kicked him into another direction. He felt amazing as he did this, he could feel the rush with every kick, he felt superhuman. Bryce boldly stepped towards him, but Chuck grinned and kicked him in the stomach, he then did another flip so that Bryce groaned in pain and fell to the floor.

He grabbed an open-mouthed Sarah by the hand and they both ran as fast as they could.

"Chuck, seriously, how did you do that?" She panted. "No one can do that."

"Sarah, there's something wrong with me." He said, out of breath.

"What do you mean?"

"I think I have a computer in my brain."

**I know it's been a long time since I update but I've been without my laptop for a while. Anyway, the next update will be much sooner. Please leave a ****review**** and let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Sarah froze and stared at Chuck for a long time before she decided to speak. There were so many disbelieving thoughts racing through her brain, but the only word she could muster up was, "What?"

"I know, Sarah, I know it sounds completely crazy. Hell, maybe I am crazy... Y'know what? Just forget I said anything." He rambled, running his hands through his unruly brown hair.

Despite their predicament, Sarah still found it adorable that he babbled on when he got nervous. "Chuck, calm down." She whispered softly. "Explain it to me slowly, c'mon, let's walk."

"Okay." He took a long and uneven breath. "I may have mentioned before my Dad works privately, he runs his own solo company for fixing computers. He's always been so secretive about it, but I noticed it more when we moved back in with him. He has this room that he calls his office..."

"Go on." Sarah nodded encouragingly.

"Well a few nights ago I got really curious and found the key to get in there. When I went in there he had loads of computers, I looked on his laptop and there was a program on there called the Intersect, I clicked on it and loads of strange pictures started appearing, it felt as though I was being hypnotized. The next thing I knew I passed out and now, whenever I get into a sticky situation or even if I'm in class... I suddenly know things like kung-fu and how to speak French." He inhaled again and studied her face, her expression was calm but her eyes looked disbelieving.

"But how can-"

"I don't know Sarah. I know it's insane." He willed for her to believe him, but how could she when he really didn't even know if he did himself.

"I believe you." She said, and she found that she was speaking honestly, not a single fiber in her being doubted him, and his wonderfully warm chocolate eyes showed her that it was impossible that he could lie. His eagerness to prove to her that he wasn't lying touched her a little.

"Really?" His eyes widened.

"Yes." Even though they were walking down the street, Sarah felt as though they had stepped into another universe, where such things were possible. "I know it does indeed sound strange, but I believe you."

Chuck beamed outwardly and wrapped her hand around hers, he gave it a little grateful squeeze, as they strolled both of them looked down at their hands entwined. He was about to pull away but he couldn't stop his thumb from caressing his smooth skin. "Thank you." He said, forcing his hands away from hers, as he did this he felt like he was losing part of himself.

"What do you think it is then, the thing inside your head?" She asked him curiously, her hand suddenly feeling empty without his.

"I don't know, what I do know is that my father is some sort of genius. There was a symbol I remember seeing on the laptop from a distance whilst my father was working on it." He said, trying to decipher his memories.

"What did it look like?" She wondered.

"It was a blue logo with some sort of bird on it... I think it was an eagle." He stated halfheartedly.

Her eyes widened. "Was there any writing on it?"

"Yeah, but I was too far away. I could only see through the keyhole into my father's office."

"Oh my God!" Her hand flew to her mouth.

Chuck stopped walking. "What is it, Sarah?"

"I think that's the CIA's logo." She said slowly and carefully.

Chuck thought about it, and suddenly, things started to piece together in his mind. Did this mean his dad was working for the CIA? Was he a spy? Had he potentially downloaded government things into his brain without even realizing it? What if it was deadly? "Oh, God, I think my father's some sort of... Agent!"

Sarah tried to compose herself, so many revelations had been made in the past few minutes, and she had to hold herself together because it was Chuck who was caught in a web of lies and conspiracy. It was him who now had these super abilities when he had no idea where they had come from.

"I think you need to speak to him. Maybe it's all just some misunderstanding." Though she highly doubted it was.

"I hope so and whatever this is in my head, I want to get it out." He sighed.

Due to the detour they had taken (albeit an unsuccessful one), they arrived outside Sarah's house first. "This is my house." She said, stopping by the gate.

Chuck checked out her house properly, even from the outside, her house looked huge. It was a white-bricked house, with modern windows and a very big floral front garden. Chuck out a long, low whistle. "Wow, nice place you have here. What did you say your father did for a living?"

"I didn't tell you, just mostly boring business deals, auctioning off buildings he has bought for high prices." Chuck needn't know that the buildings were stolen, and that everything she owned had been bought with stolen money, even the house she lived in was a faulty business deal.

"Well boring pays very nicely indeed." Chuck smiled at her, he felt the familiar urge to plant his lips on hers, despite having so much else going on in his messed up brain.

"What do you think is going to happen with this whole thing, anyway?" Sarah said, changing the subject quickly.

"I don't know, but I'm sure it'll turn out fine..." He didn't want to think about it when he was around her, he wanted to savor every moment that he shared with her.

"Look, here's my number, okay? Ring me if you have a problem... Or just ring me anyway." She smiled sheepishly, pulling a pen from her bag and scrawling her number across his palm.

"Thank you, Sarah." He couldn't resist, he pulled her into him and gave her a hug, wrapping his arms around her. He could hear her sharp breathing and the sound of her heart, thumping almost in time with his. He was surprised when she pulled her arms around him, too.

Sarah felt so many things at once, happiness, love and confusion. It had been a very eventful walk home but she nearly forgot, all she wanted was to stay like this forever. It saddened her when he pulled away. "I'll call you later." He said, gazing down into her azure eyes, he struggled to tare his eyes away, but somehow he did.

She watched his tall frame move away from her until it was just a silhouette. "Chuck." She whispered longingly, before turning and wandering into her house.

Chuck felt a deep urge to be with her again, he just wanted to hold her and never, ever let her go. He had a feeling that this wasn't just a silly crush anymore, his feelings for her were intensifying by the day and he felt a bond forming between them that he knew could never be undone, like he had an unbreakable tie to her, his own personal connection line.

When he got home, he saw that his father wasn't home yet, but Ellie was. As much as he wanted to speak to his sister, he needed some time to think alone in his room about his bewildering situation.

"Hey, El." He smiled, about to walk up the stairs, but to his surprise she got up off the couch and took a few short strides until she was next to him.

"Something is going on with you, Chuck." Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"What do you mean?" He blinked innocently, _play it cool, Chuck, play it cool. _He thought to himself.

"Lately you're coming home later, and even when you're here it doesn't seem as though you are. Something is on your mind, what is it?" Her voice was slowly rising in decibels by the second.

He couldn't lie to his sister, but then again he couldn't tell her the strange truth, but he could tell her something. "It's a girl, El." He said simply.

Her expression turned from angry to elated, "You have a girlfriend?"

"Well... No, but I really like her and I think... Well, I don't know. She's really beautiful, and kind and funny and out of my league completely." He sighed.

"Chuck, stop underselling yourself, you're a great guy. It seems apparent that you like spending time with her, so she must like spending time with you, otherwise she wouldn't give you the time of day, would she?" Ellie said wisely.

"I guess not." Chuck replied, defeated.

"What's this girl's name, Chuck?" Ellie wondered.

"Sarah Walker." He smiled, his eyes brighter than the sun.

Ellie looked carefully at her brother, it was the first time she had ever seen him like this and he appeared to be falling for this 'Sarah' girl and hard. "Just be careful, okay? Don't give your heart away to someone who isn't ready for it, or they'll end up breaking it."

Chuck just nodded. "I will, thanks sis." He continued up the stairs to his room and when he was finally in the safe security of his room he let his thoughts take over his mind. For his own sake he had to push Sarah to the back of his mind so that it allowed his to think rationally. _So, _he thought, _my father is a possible CIA agent, and he may have been doing spy work on his laptop... And his multiple computers. This program that I clicked on has somehow made me have these superhuman abilities. God, this is better than any comic book I've ever read. Maybe it was meant to go into someone else, like a superspy. I think I have to talk to Dad about this otherwise I'll never know and I could be in this situation forever._

He decided to wait until his father came home to confront him, rather than to take the coward's way out and ring him.

Unfortunately for Chuck's plan, he accidently fell asleep. The next time that his eyes opened, he found that it was dark, after taking a second or two to come round, he cursed himself for being so disorganized. With a sigh, he checked the clock beside him; it stated that it was just gone ten o'clock. He decided that he was going to speak to his dad anyway.

He slowly emerged from his room, looking tired and disheveled. He crept past Ellie's room and was surprised to hear her snoring gently; he peeked in on her and saw she had fallen asleep on her homework. He removed the papers from beneath her head and put a blanket over her, he then turned the light off.

Just as he was about to knock on his father's door, he heard voices coming from in the study. He held his breath whilst wondering who would be in their house at this time of night. He was silent as he struggled to hear the distant sounds.

"Stephen I have managed to pinpoint exactly when the Intersect was uploaded." Chuck heard an unfamiliar voice say. "It was three days ago, at four fifteen pm. Was any of your family home then?"

Chuck let out a small gasp; he clapped his hand over his mouth in order to keep himself from being heard.

"No... Ellie wasn't, but Chuck was." He heard his father say.

"And what was your son doing when you got home?" The man asked curiously.

"Well, he was sleeping. Which was odd?" Stephen said slowly, Chuck could just imagine the realization dawning on his father's face.

"He probably couldn't help falling asleep; after all uploading the Intersect can be tiring to the brain."

"You really think it was him?" He whispered harshly.

"Yes, , now where is your son? We will have to bring him in, he has the government's most important secrets in his head, and he is now the most valuable asset in the world."

Chuck stepped backwards, almost fainting by what he had heard. So his father _was_ an agent. He _had_ uploaded the government's secrets into his head, but he hadn't had any idea how important he now was to the CIA, and to the world. For the first time in a long time, Chuck was scared. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as his stomach flipped awkwardly. What was he supposed to do?

"Wait." Stephen almost shouted. "Shouldn't we at least talk to the General and the Director first, before we make any rash decisions?" Chuck hoped that he was trying to buy him some time.

"I suppose we should consult them first, but I know they are going to agree with me, Stephen. Word's going to get and your son is going to become the top of every criminal organization's wanted list."

Chuck couldn't listen to any more, he had to leave. He had no choice but to go and leave behind the life he led here, it was either going to be the government taking him into a secure bunker or it would be people who wanted the Intersect for themselves, coming to take him away. How had he gotten himself into such an unfixable mess? He didn't allow himself to think rationally, all he could feel was the pure adrenaline coursing through his burning veins.

He shoved all his necessities into his bagpack, and crushed as many items of clothing in as he could. He was going to have to somehow manage himself financially, so, with a regretful feeling, Chuck took the card for his college savings and his other bank card, with all his savings in from his first job as a paperboy. He thanked the lord that he had decided to save the money that he earned for a rainy day.

He pulled on his jacket and slung his bagpack on his shoulder, he took one last look around his room and left. He tucked a note under Ellie's pillow and kissed her on the forehead and with that, he raced out of the front door at a lightning speed. He ran all the way down his street, running in the direction that his heart took him to. Sarah.

Panting, he found himself standing outside her house, gazing up at the window he knew was hers, due to the red curtains and her make-up stacked on her windowsill. Mustering all his courage, he gripped a tiny pebble from the gravel that led up to her front door. He threw it at her window, and to his delight, he hit it. He waited a second before he threw another one, this time he saw her confused face appear in the window, and in a split second, her expression change, her eyes lit up and she smiled from ear-to-ear. Then her bewildered expression came back again when she noticed his bagpack.

"What are you doing?" She mouthed at him.

"Come down!" He mouthed back. She nodded, vanishing from the window. Suddenly two seconds later, the front door opened wide and Chuck couldn't stop himself from gazing at her lithe body in her nightie, though she somehow looked innocent with her tired, translucent, make-up-less face, glowing in the moonlight.

"Chuck!" She said, unable to believe he was standing at her door. She took in his appearance, his warm brown eyes-that continued to make her melt-looked panic stricken, his hair was hidden beneath a blue beanie hat that she thought made him look adorable. God, how she wanted him. Suddenly, she remembered to speak. "What is it?"

"Won't your dad hear you speaking to me?" He wondered.

"He's not here; he's out overnight on err... Business." She stuttered.

"He left you alone-overnight?" Chuck said, his eyebrows furrowing.

"I'm old enough to look after myself, anyway." She said determinedly. "Why are you here... Not that I don't mind." She added, smiling.

"Sarah, I came to say goodbye, I'm sorry." He couldn't meet her eyes.

"What do you mean goodbye?" Her body instantly turned stone-cold.

"I overheard my Dad and someone else talking. My Dad _is_ an agent, he knows I have this intersect thing in my head, and now so do the government! They want to take me in and lock me in a bunker. I can't spend my life like that, Sarah, I can't. Not only that, but the man that was with my father said that others would be looking for me too, because what's in my head is so valuable." He said, quickly looking from side to side.

"Chuck you can't just leave... I've only just met you..." She said, her voice breaking and her eyes suddenly overflowing with tears.

"I can't stay, can I?" He said softly. "They'd take me. I would never see you again anyway, it's better like this." He surprised himself by how calm he was being.

"Please." Sarah whispered, feeling like she was being torn apart, every ounce of her was aching, longing for him to stay.

"Goodbye, Sarah." He gave a wistful sigh, and then suddenly, his eyes changed and turned dark with want. He shocked Sarah by grabbing her and pulling her to him, he pressed his lips to hers, he kissed her passionately, so many weeks' worth of want crushed into one kiss. He was elated when she kissed him back, just as powerfully, her tongue dancing with his. It was as though they were connected, in a split second they both became one person and electricity frazzled in the air between them, kick starting their erratic heart beats. Chuck pulled away and looked into her eyes, though he felt he was gazing much deeper, like he could see the person she truly was, through the two most beautiful things he had ever seen.

He started to pull back, but her hand gripped his tightly. "I'm coming with you, Chuck."

"What?"

"Listen, I... can't... you can't- I'm coming." She said her tone deadly serious.

"Sarah, you have a whole life here, family, friends." He protested.

"I don't though, that's the thing. My father is a con-man." She admitted. "He's hardly ever here, he takes me sometimes so he can use me for his latest scam. Because of the way he's raised me, I've never been as close to someone as I am to you, I have nothing here. Nothing. If you left, oh God, I couldn't face it." She found herself babbling.

"You don't have to do this." He wanted her to come so badly, but how could he make her leave everything behind, for him?

"Is it just me, or do we have something really special? I can't give up on that, give up on you; I've only just found you. I want to be with you, I don't care where we go." She said urgently, she felt relieved that she said that to him, it really wasn't easy for her to talk about her emotions to people. But somehow, with Chuck, it felt like almost a natural instinct to her.

"You really mean this?" He stuttered.

"I've never been more serious in my life." She took his hand in hers. "Trust me, Chuck."

"I do." He whispered, as solemnly as a wedding vow.

"I'll be right back with my stuff." She beamed, and less than ten minutes later, she reappeared with a bag draped around her shoulders. He gripped her hand tightly as they ran off into the night.

"Do you know how to hot wire a car?" Chuck said, with a golden twinkle in his eye.

**I know this was quite an eventful chapter, but there was plenty of Charah! I'm sixteen on Friday… Yay! Anyway, please leave a ****review****, I am truly grateful for each one I receive. Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"So you do know how to hot wire a car!" Chuck beamed at Sarah as they sped quickly along the winding road. "Are you some kind of superhero?"

Sarah's laugh rang and shimmered like a bell in the atmosphere around them. "No! It's just something my dad taught me when I was a kid."

"You must have been a really crafty kid." Chuck noted.

"Well, with a con man as a father I kind of had to be." She replied, taking her eyes off the road for a fraction of a second to look at him.

"So when was the last time you helped him with one?" He asked, feeling a storm of emotions thundering through his body as he gazed into the ocean that was her eyes, he had to shake himself back to reality when she pulled her gaze away.

"Well about six months ago. I realised I could say no to him. I know, I know, it's stupid to have never said no to him." Sarah sighed and then almost stopped breathing when Chuck placed his hand gently on top of hers, which was on the steering wheel.

"It's not stupid, Sarah." He said gently. "It's how you were raised."

"Yeah, I guess so. I always knew it was wrong to take money from innocent people but... I don't know, I always felt like I had some sort of obligation to help my Dad. It didn't stop me feeling guilty though, really guilty - so, the last time he asked me I just said no. His expression was priceless." She grinned, but her eyes darkened despite her smile.

"I know I've already asked you this, but are you sure you want to leave him behind?"

"Yes, Chuck. I'm positive, I love him but I can't live like that anymore. And besides, you're my best friend, I'll go wherever you do." She smiled.

"Best friend?" Chuck frowned, was that what they were? He thought after that kiss, the label on their relationship would have changed, unless it meant but more to him than it did to her. Even considering that concept made Chuck's fragile heart almost shatter. "But what about-"

"What?" Sarah's eyebrows furrowed. She obviously knew herself what he was referring to, but she needed to think about it herself first. Whenever she was with him she felt as though she was falling deeper and deeper in... Well, could she use that word? She didn't really know the meaning of it herself, she couldn't recall her father ever saying it, in fact, he more or less avoided it, but with her mother, she remembered her mom reciting the words to her every night, her eyes shining brightly into her own. She just needed to pace herself and just go with every emotion she felt, without thinking about it too much.

"Never mind." He frowned. "Where are we going anyway?"

"Well, we'll just keep driving for a few hours then find a motel somewhere." She answered.

"Okay." Suddenly Chuck's eyelids felt immensely heavy, reluctantly tearing his eyes away from Sarah, he let them fall.

**Burbank **

**(**_**The following morning)**_

Ellie woke up with a violent start, her alarm was suddenly her worst enemy. She rolled over to turn it off, when oddly she heard a rustling when she rolled over the pillow. She hit the off button on the clock and reached under her pillow. She was bewildered to find a note there, it was slightly crumpled and folded up with her name scrawled on the front, in Chuck's handwriting.

Giving the note an odd look, she unfolded it and began to read.

_Ellie,_

_I have to take off for a while, I know this is weird and so out of the blue but I'm in an impossible situation. Maybe Dad will explain it to you, but long story short, there's a lot of people after me now, bad people, important people._

_Just remember I love you, and I promise I'll find my way back to you. I won't do a mom. _

_Chuck._

Ellie gasped and flew out of bed, it was far too much for her to take in. She ran into her father's room to find his bed empty and unslept in, his study was locked. She gave a loud frustrated sigh, tears making their way down her face. Not her little brother. Not Chuck. What sort of mess was he in? She wondered.

All of a sudden she heard a loud banging sound coming from the kitchen and then she heard several voices.

"Dad?" Ellie said, coming down the stairs, she stopped open mouthed when she spied about fifteen men with expensive black suits with brief cases in her living room. It looked like a scene from Men In Black.

"Ellie." Stephen said, looking at her wearily.

"What's going on, Dad? Where's Chuck? Who are these people?" She shouted, the room suddenly fell silent.

"El, come with me a sec." He replied, beckoning her into the hallway.

She followed him with clenched fists. She stood facing her father, still crying, her feet tapping impatiently on the floor.

"Listen, I know this is a lot to take in and I wouldn't be telling you this if I didn't have to." He ran his aging fingers through his greying hair.

"Go on then, tell me, Dad." She breathed.

"I work for the government. I have since way before you were born, I do important computer work for the CIA, but I was working on something, something really important..."

"What was it?"

"It was a programme called the Intersect, basically it had all the goverment's secrets crammed into this one thing and I was programming it so that it could be downloaded into someone's brain." Stephen regarded his daughter with tired eyes.

"A computer? For someone's brain?" She didn't know that such things were possible.

"Yes. It wasn't just that, there's something else about the Intersect, too. It gives a person special abilites, abilites that only an international superspy should have."

"What does this have to do with Chuck?"

Ellie's eyes pleaded with her father's. "He downloaded it."

"What? How... When?" Her hands flew to her mouth.

"A few days ago, the CIA has been thinking that it's been stolen. When all along Chuck has been walking around with secrets in his mind, with super abilites at the blink of an eye." He shook his head, clearly still in shock himself. "I never imagined that-"

"That's why Chuck ran then?" Ellie cut him off, her mahogany eyes wide. "The CIA are after him, they want what's in his head?"

"Yes. But others will be after him too, now that the CIA know. Enemy organisations that want the Intersect for themselves. It wasn't meant for your brother El, it was meant for a spy."

"Where do you think he's gone?" She wondered, her nails digging into her skin.

"I don't know-I was hoping maybe you would know... that's why I told you-but the CIA will find him. Hopefully before the others do."

"What do you mean, hopefully? If they find him then they'll use him. They won't let him see the light of day again." She gasped.

"Maybe he'll be safest in an underground bunker." Stephen sighed. "At least then no one will be after him."

"How can you say that, Dad? What kind of horrible life will he have underground? You know what? I'm glad he ran, I hope they don't find him. This is all your fault, you don't even deserve to be a father if you think Chuck belongs in a bunker!" She screamed at him, running into her room and throwing herself on her bed, her mind pounding with so much information.

On the one hand she hoped he got away and saved himself from a life of misery, but on the other, she couldn't bear not to set eyes on him again. Surely there was someway out of this mess?

**8.00am**

"Hey look, Chuck, there's a motel!" Sarah managed to say this loudly so that he finally woke up.

"Huh?" His brown eyes were narrow wih sleep and his face was flushed pink from the heat of the car which Sarah found adorable. "Oh God, Sarah, I'm sorry, how long was I out?"

"Well, it's been about four hours since our last car switch... So I'm guessing four hours." She smiled slowly, her tone teasing.

"Sorry. Come on, lets pull over at this motel and I promise I'll pay." He smiled back at her. Who needed a college fund?

"Okay." She dumped the current silver piece of junk they were in and they jogged over to the hotel, despite her tiredness Sarah was on full alert for any government company.

"Sarah, will you stop looking behind us, we're fine." He said gently.

"Sorry, I'm just so nervous." She said.

"We must have driven a million miles since last night, we'll be fine. At least for tonight." They checked into the motel under different pseudonyms. The woman behind the counter didn't even seem to notice they were minors, she was far too interested in the condition of her nails.

When Chuck opened the door to their room, he wasn't shocked by the condition of it, he expected it to be much worse. It was homely, if anything, the walls were coloured a pale baby blue and the floor was covered with a fluffy biege carpet. There was only a double bed in the middle of the room, with two azure lamps next to it. The only other room that was the bathroom, in there was a tiny little toilet with a shower right next to it.

"Well this is nice." Chuck said sarcastically.

"It's not that bad, at least we have somewhere to stay. Plus it was quite cheap and we're lucky that lady didn't even check if we were eighteen." She flopped down on to the bed and felt the mattress bounce as Chuck lay down next to her.

"I personally think you do look eighteen." Chuck admitted.

"Really? I feel like being sixteen is a world away from being an adult." She turned to face him, her chest rising up and down as she did this, her heart started to pound really fast as she gazed into his eyes, she just couldn't look away, her body was growing hotter by the second as a swarm of butterflies developed in her stomach.

"Jesus." Chuck muttered.

"What?" She asked.

"You're just so beautiful, Sarah. I've never met anyone as gorgeous as you are... and I'm certain that I never will."

She checked his expression just in case he was joking, sure, when she looked in the mirror her face was pretty symmetrical and her eyes weren't too close together, but she wouldn't have described herself as beautiful. "Thank you." She whispered, wrapping her hand around his.

"I think I-" She stopped herself. "I'm going to have a quick shower."

A short while later, she emerged from the shower with just a T-shirt on. Chuck did a double take but then, ever the gentleman, he looked away from her slender body and willowy arms and endless legs.

"I can sleep on the floor." He said suddenly, picking up a pillow and sliding off of the bed.

Sarah grabbed him quickly, pulling him back on to the bed. "Oh no you don't, you're staying right here."

She pulled the duvet over them both and snuggled down into the pillow, fighting her heavy lids, she looked into Chuck's eyes again and felt like she was finally home. A stray curl fell over his eyes and she gently moved it away, simialtainously they turned the lamps off. She wiggled herself into his embrace and tried to calm her ever thumping heart.

His warm arms wrapped themselves around her stomach, she felt safe. Chuck felt odd, them climbing into bed in the daylight, even though he had slept basically the whole journey, he still felt tired. Her feet were cold so he put hers between his and she moved closer to him.

"Thank you." He whispered into his ear.

"For what?"

"Coming with me. Leaving your father behind." He said in a long sigh.

"I wanted to come. More than anything." She whispered back. "Goodnight Chuck, or good-day or whatever." She laughed.

They woke up later that day and Sarah heard a load of cars pulling up outside, she jumped up, following her instincts and found that her suspicions were true when she saw a lot of mean looking men not so subtly loading guns and strolling towards the motel.

"Shit! Chuck, we have company!"

**I am so so so sorry for not updating for so long. My laptop was sent away because my sister broke it, I've been itching to write for ages now and as soon as it came back today I typed this out. You can expect far more frequent updates from me! Please ****review, ****I have so man plans for this story, I've already started writing chapter six!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Sarah could do nothing but watch as the men in dark suits strolled towards the motel, her limbs were frozen in place and refused to move.

"Sarah?" Chuck quickly closed the gap between them and sprinted up to the window. He saw the scene before them and gasped. There were only so many rooms in the motel, it would only be a matter of moments before they were found. "Sarah?" He said louder, he could tell she was scared.

"Come on, it's okay, just get dressed really quickly, grab your stuff and we'll go out the fire exit." Chuck managed to speak softly, despite his severe case of anxiety.

"Okay." She whispered. "Okay." She quickly pulled on a pair of jeans, shoved everything she could see back in her backpack.

Before she could bat an eyelid, Chuck had already pulled them to the fire exit, situated at the back of their motel room, which was rather convenient. He yanked open the door and gasped - as far as he could see was trees. A vast emerald forest stretched before them, a blur of browns and greens all merged together into one scenery.

"If we go in there, Chuck, we might get lost." Sarah said, her voice rising slowly in panick.

"Calm down, Sarah, we just need to focus on getting away from them. I don't care whether they're the CIA... NSA or any other organisations out to get me, we've just got to run, okay?" He wrapped his long arms around her slender frame and squeezed her tightly.

"Let's do this." She smirked slightly, she took off ahead of him and ran into the forest. Suddenly they were both in there, sprinting as fast as they could, dodging the thick tree trunks and wild thorns as they ran. Sarah tried to forget about the exhaustion taking over her body, all she wanted to feel was the adrenaline coursing through her veins and the cool wind whipping her hair behind her. But the most comforting part of it was Chuck sprinting beside her.

They stopped for a moment behind a large tree to catch their breath. Chuck was kneeling down holding his chest as he tried to capture some air to inhale to his lungs - to fuel his erratic heart beat.

Just as Sarah was about to say something to Chuck, they heard a very faint but audiable twig snapping in the distance. They both stiffened against the tree trunk.

"Sa-" Just as Chuck was about to say something to her, Sarah placed her hand gently over his mouth and signalled for him to listen.

"They definitely came this way, Sir." They heard a deep voice say.

"Yeah, we're going to find them. Well, I'm not so bothered whether we find the girl or not but this boy... Stephen Bartowski's son, he has what we want. The Intersect. Imagine the things we could do, Stone. We could take down every organisation out there." An even deeper voice drawled.

"I think you're getting a bit carried away." The person who appeared to be Stone said as they came closer and closer to where Chuck and Sarah were hiding. "We gotta find them first, sir."

"Right. Well we have to find them before Sampson or Hugh do, or Benett will promote them."

Chuck and Sarah had no idea what these two men were talking about, but it was apparent that finding Chuck would guarantee some sort of award. Chuck wanted to run, but the men were so close to them... there would be nowhere to run without them spotting them. They probably had guns or knifes and Chuck had nothing. He had to protect Sarah, whatever happened.

He had to fashion a quick plan and he hoped the thing in his head would come through for him. "Trust me, Sarah." He whispered, leaning forward slightly and stamping hard on a stick so that a loud crunch echoed through the forest.

"Did you hear that?" Stone wondered.

"Shhh!" The other man said, inching towards the tree that Chuck and Sarah were hiding behind.

Sarah shot Chuck a terrified glance as he clenched his fists, and suddenly his eyes spaced out, his expression turned blank and in an instant, he came back to reality and a small half smile appeared on his face. "Pretend it's a video game." He whispered to himself as the footsteps came closer.

The two men appeared, either side of the trunk, one of the men was tall and stocky with dark, jet black hair and the other was shorter and better looking with dark skin and sunglasses covering his eyes. The taller one's eyes glistened as if to say 'Jackpot', when they spotted Chuck and Sarah.

Suddenly, Chuck did a front flip, sticking both of his front legs out and kicking both men backwards a little. He mouthed for Sarah to hide as he landed in standing position again. Sarah ran and hid behind another tree and watched as Chuck punched the taller one in the face. He threw a couple more punches and kicks until he fell to the floor. Just as Chuck caught his breath, the other man, Stone regained conciousness and pulled a gun out of his side pocket and pointed it towards Chuck.

Chuck gasped, they was nothing he could do but watch as he placed his finger on the trigger. He closed his eyes and braced himself, but was surprised to hear a large thump. His eyes shot open again and he was beyond shocked to find Sarah standing over Stone's again unconcious body, holding a rather large rock.

She was panting and her blue eyes were wide as they met his. She sprinted over to Chuck and gave a quick smile.

"You saved me!" Chuck said slowly, "he was about to shoot me."

"What can I say?" Sarah smirked, and shrugged. "I only threw a rock at his head. Now come on."

"Run, Forrest, run!" He grinned.

Regarding the men with slightly terrified eyes, they stepped over the fastly rousing bodies and ran in a different direction to which they were running in before.

They both ran for a good five minutes before it was physically impossible that they could run anymore. It was just as well that they had reached a large river, which was wide with almost transparent water revealing an endless floor of rocks below it.

"We have to go through it." Sarah said, sensing that company wasn't too far away from them.

"At least we have a clean change of clothes." Chuck replied, feeling his heart beat faster than when he was running - when he looked into her eyes. He felt as though he was seeing her for the first time, his chest felt heavy as she wrapped her hand around his, his breaths came out shaky and uneven.

She gazed back into his eyes and for a few long moment, it was as though the forest that was surrounding them had vanished. Something was happening to Sarah inside, something deep, meaningful and almost indescribable. A feeling that she longed to explore, so that she could reliquish a part of it, because it felt as though something was holding her down, but also shooting her up into the air at the same time. It was amazing, but also confusing and exhilerating.

Chuck placed his hand on Sarah's face and came closer to her.

"Chuck!" Sarah said, snapping out of it slightly. "Someone's going to find us if we don't keep moving."

"Right." His giddy smile mirrored hers as they walked quickly towards the river. "Shit."

"What?" She asked him.

"What about our bags? They're going to get soaking if we swim with them, it's not like we can hold them above our heads as we swim across, is it?" He said.

"We'll just have to throw them to the other side." She shrugged simply.

"And what if they don't make it? Everything we need is in these bags."

"That's just the chance we're going to have to take." Sarah smirked, she shrugged her backpack from her shoulders and reeled her arm backwards, and then launched it forwards, sending her backpack flying across the river and landing with a thump just an inch away from the edge of the lake.

"Well my bag's safe." She smiled.

Chuck repeated the motion and grimaced as it flew through the air, his breath caught in his throat as it glided - he started to breath again when it landed next to safely next to Sarah's.

"I'm not a strong swimmer." Chuck admitted sheepishly.

"Oh." Was all Sarah could say. "Well... It's not far, you'll be fine." Chuck watched in awe as she strolled towards the edge of the river, raised her hands above her head and cut cleanly through the surface of the water, not a single drop landing on the grass. She appeared several meters away when her head popped up and her eyes shot back to Chuck.

He was still standing there, gazing at the water, frozen.

"Come on, Chuck, you'll be okay, it's not far." She encouraged him.

He nodded slowly, before a familiar feeling overtook his mind. He was 'flashing', _thank God, _he thought gratefully. He dove into the water and front crawled effortlessly towards Sarah, in almost an instant. Her eyes were wide.

"You.. your... that thing. You flashed on this?" Her tone was disbelieving.

"Yeah!" He grinned. He was swimming as though he belonged in the olympics, though he couldn't deny he was still in awe of Sarah's swimming skills, she was fast, precise and moved like a mermaid through the water.

They weren't too far from the other side of the river when Sarah started shivering, Chuck noticed her teeth chattering, so he pulled her onto his back and she beamed at him gratefully.

"Thanks." She said between shivers, securing her arms around his neck as he swam to the other side of the water.

It was freezing when they got out. But they couldn't change clothes because they would have to put the wet clothes back in their bags, only to soak the rest of the things that they so dearly needed.

"So... What now?" Sarah said, shaking as they walked.

"I guess we just keep walking briskly, like this until we've got far enough away from them... Even though we really don't have any idea where they are hiding. But I guess we just have to chance it."

"Yeah, but what happens after that? Do we keep hiding here? In the forest?" She wondered.

"Well, no, I guess we'll have to find a way out of here... But it's not safe to reappear right now, they're probably lurking everywhere outside of the forest, just waiting for us to make an appearance so they can make their move." He replied.

"This is so scary! But it's exciting at the same time." She admitted.

"I know what you mean, it's like some sort of awesome adventure that you'd see in the movies, I'm finding it hard to believe that it's actually real." Chuck noticed how cold she was, so he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into him as they walked. It wasn't convient for speed, but it was warmer.

"Thanks." Her heart started racing again, like an unstoppable drum, she was aware of his uneven breaths and she was even more aware of him... Just the essence of him. His arm around her, making her feel safe and at home and she loved the feel of his body against hers. And for the briefest of moments she felt as though they were one person, their heartbeats in sync, their steps, their breaths. She wanted him. She was starting to yearn for him, even though he was right there. "It's real, believe me."

**Burbank**

Ellie lay in her bed, she hadn't been to college that day. The telephone on her bedside table had been ringing nonstop. But she was too busy thinking about her brother and the people after him. It felt better though, knowing that he wasn't alone, she had found out a few hours ago from one of her friends that someone called Sarah Walker had gone missing, too.

She had known instantly that this was the Sarah that Chuck had mentioned. She had seen the magicial look in his eyes the when he had said her name. The look that told her that he was falling in love with her, a look that said he was impulsive. Which means he would have done something impulsive, like run away with her.

She knew he wasn't a child anymore. But sixteen still wasn't old enough to know what you were doing, she had to find him, before they did. She knew what to do, she was an adult after all (despite the fact she was still living in her father's house), she could look after him and make sure he was safe. He was all she had and she was never going to give up on him.

Finally, she picked up the phone when it rang for the seventh time.

"Ellie?" She heard Devon's voice say worriedly down the phone.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"No." She let out a small sob.

"I heard about your brother going missing. I know people Ellie, we can find him."

"You really think we can?" She sounded hopeful.

"Yeah definitely, I know this amazing private detective, he's awesome!"

Suddenly Ellie didn't feel so doubtful. The CIA weren't the only people with good resources, were they?

**Somewhere in the Forest**

Chuck and Sarah were sitting right at the top of a giant tree. It had a large branch in which Chuck and Sarah could sit on. They did have some difficulty getting up there, but they eventually did and for now, they were safe. Sarah fastened her scarf around them so that when they fell asleep, they would not fall.

They sat silently munching on whatever food was left over in their bags.

"Hey, I put a knife in here." Chuck said, his expression bewildered.

"Pass it to me." Sarah insisted, her face close to his.

"Ok." Chuck raised one perfect eyebrow as he handed it to her.

The sun had set not too long ago, so Chuck could just about make out what she was doing. He wrapped his arms around her as she carved their names into the bark of the tree.

"It's going to be there forever." Sarah smiled.

"It's perfect." He was about to add 'like you', but he didn't want to over do it with the cheesiness.

"What if they find us tonight, Chuck?" Sarah asked him, shifting herself slightly in his embrace so that she was looking right into those magical eyes of his.

"I think we'll be okay for tonight. We've walked a long way, and we'll be fine up here. Don't worry."

"I hope you're right." She replied.

"I can't believe just over twenty four hours ago I was sitting at home with no knowledge about any of this." He sighed, partly wishing he could turn back the clock, but he didn't wish it completely because of the young woman he held closely in his arms. She had changed everything for him, it was as though even though everything in his life had been turned upside down, she was the only thing that made sense. It was scary when he realised he was falling in love with her and incredibly deeply so. He hadn't known her for that long, but when he was with her, he felt complete.

"I know. Just over twenty four hours ago I felt as though I was living in a prison. And I know our circumstances are dire, but I feel free." She admitted.

"Me too. I've never been without Ellie for so long. She's more like a mother to me than my Mom ever was." Chuck's eyes grew far and distant.

"Where did she go, your mom?" Sarah was very curious about this.

"Well, she never really explained properly why she was leaving. I know that she had some mysterious boyfriend but I don't know why she would have left us... For him." For the first time ever, Sarah thought that Chuck seemed reluctant to talk about this particular subject. She didn't push it.

"So if Ellie is practically your mother then why did you need move in with your dad?" She still didn't fully understand.

"Well, Ellie and I could have looked after each other just fine. It was just the money, there was no way she could have supported us both when she's only in college. So... to help us financially, we managed to contact dad and he agreed to help us." Chuck looked down at Sarah felt his stomach swirl as she laid her head down on his chest. He heard the faint hootings of owls nearby and the crickets down below.

"That was nice of him. My Dad supported me from his cons." She laughed bitterly to herself.

"What about your mom?" He asked her.

"She died... When I was seven." She whispered.

"Oh I'm sorry Sarah." He held her tighter than he ever had.

She looked up at him and felt the tears forming in her eyes. He wiped them away and slowly closed the gap between them. He kissed her slowly and softly, as though he was gradually melting her pain away. When it ended her rested his forehead against hers and smiled. She put her head back down onto his chest and closed her eyes. It didn't matter right then what adventures awaited them in the morning, what mattered at that moment was her and Chuck.

**I know it's been a while. Sorry for any spelling mistakes, this is just written on ordinary wordpad. ****Review**** please? It means a lot! :D**


	7. Chapter 7

**I am so, so, so, so, SO sorry that I haven't updated in a long time. I have been without a laptop for four months, also I have moved house and then been without the internet for a number of weeks. I know I haven't been the most consistent of writers but I'm ready now to update more often. Thank you if you have decided to carry on reading this – it isn't a lost cause… sorry for rambling, anyway..**

**Chapter 7**

Chuck slowly opened his eyes; he knew the sun was up before they were open fully, it was shining brightly, illuminating the sleeping angel at his side. He turned and looked at her, so graceful and peaceful when unconscious, her breathing slow and even. He was mesmerized, never had he seen anything more beautiful than the sight before him. It was strange that he was falling for her when he had known her for such a short space of time, but when he was with her everything inside him just seemed fitting - _whole._

It was obvious that they had to plan their next move very carefully, there were probably agents surrounding the forest and there were probably some _in_ the forest, after all they had knocked out two burly agents not even twelve hours ago, if they wanted to get somewhere then they had to get moving and fast. Chuck felt a burning desire to stretch the distance between them and Burbank even further.

He fumbled in his bag for something to eat; his stomach was grumbling earnestly to be fed. He was not shocked to find that their food supply was dangerously low, they needed to get out of this forest today or they would go hungry, he estimated that they had enough water to last them through the day and that was it.

It was unsettling to imagine that they had to leave the sanctity of their tree, but they weren't creatures who belonged above ground. They had to get moving as soon as possible, so Chuck was sad to find out that he would have to wake up Sarah from her slumber. A world where there were no Intersects, or people trying to capture and kill them, a World where she was safe, which was what he wanted more than anything.

"Sarah.." He called softly, shaking her shoulder gently.

For a moment she was still lost within herself, clinging on to dream world, but slowly her two ocean blue eyes opened, at first a clouded, vacant look took over her for a few moments but the clouds parted and the sun came out as soon as her eyes met his own. A lazy smile stretched its way across her face.

"Morning." She said sleepily.

"Hey, sorry to wake you." His expression looked genuinely apologetic.

"It's okay; I'm surprised I slept for so long." She said sleepily, "if you told me I would be waking up in a tree a few days ago I would have told you to get lost." She shook her head and smiled at him again, she wanted to throw herself at him but she didn't consider it to be a good idea since they were in a tree.

"We've got to get going." He looked down at his watch, it was just after half eight. "It's still pretty early, the earlier we leave, the less they're likely to find us." He _hoped _so anyway.

"Yeah, come on." She looked down and suddenly felt very dizzy, she stopped and took a breath, and stretched her limbs and shakily began climbing down the tree, not looking up to see if Chuck was following her-neither looking down at the ground because she was scared that she might feel nauseous if she did so.

Less than a minute later they were both on the ground, their backpacks were slung over their backs, they were both achy and tired, but definitely ready to leave their woodland surroundings. Together they finished off the rest of the food and drank some water. They had to get out of the forest or they would surely starve.

They chose the direction which they thought would lead them back in the direction of the motel; they walked in a comfortable silence. Sarah's mind was filled with memories of the previous evening when she revealed her mother's death to Chuck; she remembered how he wiped away her tears with his thumb and kissed her as though she was his whole world. With him this seemed like a magical adventure, not some crazy teenagers running away from the inevitable. She knew she could never turn her back on him, something was happening irrevocably deep inside her, like her veins were pulsating with a newfound adrenaline and making her heart feel as though it was about to explode with love, all this was down to Chuck Bartowski.

As if reading her thoughts, Chuck nervously twined her hand around hers, her skin prickled with his touch, he gave her a cute half smile and took a swig of water. He spluttered and coughed.

"Are you okay?" She laughed but with concern in her voice.

"Yeah, it went down the wrong way."

They walked for the next few hours with their arms swinging gently back and forth, talking about pointless things, but things that led them to find out more and more about each other, they laughed a lot despite their dire circumstances. They were both still optimistic about running away together, they both agreed they just needed to get as far away from where they were as they could and be as discreet as they possibly could be.

The number of trees eventually began to decrease; they started to part to show a clearing up ahead. Chuck and Sarah looked at one another nervously, this could go either way, they could find a load of people waiting to capture them, or they could have a lucky escape and start building the future they both knew they wanted together.

Hand in hand they both emerged from the wilderness; he squeezed her hand tightly as the motel slowly came into view. Sarah held her breath but was surprised to find the motel desolate, she looked from left to right and then twisted her body behind them but didn't see a single soul. Strange, this is where a part of her thought this might be the end of the line.

They needed to find a car, any car. Hurriedly they ran and then they came across a black BMW, which looked rather expensive. Sarah felt a tug of guilt in her conscience but resisted, their escape was more important than anything else. She took the wire from inside of her backpack that she had used previously to hotwire the first car that they had 'borrowed'. Not that long later they were both in the car and Sarah was trying to get it started, she fiddled with the wire in the ignition and the car make her jump when it roared to life.

"Let's get out of here." Chuck said with a tiny nervous smile on his face, his eyes were trained on the review mirror, watching the motel disappear out of sight from behind them. He looked at Sarah again, wanting to run his fingers through her golden tendrils of hair. He wanted to hold her; he didn't like endangering her like this.

"Well that was surprisingly easy." Sarah said; her tone disbelieving.

"I know, I can hardly believe we spent last night in a _tree._" Chuck gave a small laugh.

It made Sarah swoon the way he said '_we_ spent last night', he placed his hand on her knee as she drove, it was infuriatingly distracting, her body became hot with desire for him, it was all she could to keep her eyes on the road.

"I know! Something tells me our adventure has only just begun anyway." She grinned.

**Burbank**

"A car has been reported stolen not too far from where this.. Sarah Walker lives, we followed the security tapes and their last known location was at this motel not too far from Phoenix, Arizona. A witness that works in the motel has also admitted seeing two teenagers flee from the hotel less than twenty four hours ago." Colonel Tom Kline stated to Stephen.

"Twenty four fours ago, Klein?" Stephen's face turned red with rage. "I'm not interested in twenty four hours ago; I need to know where my son is now!"

"I was getting to my next point." Klein said in an unbothered tone, his feathers remained unruffled from Stephen's outburst. "Another car has been stolen near the motel, we have the car's plate, all we need to do is wait for the next security feed to pick up the location of the car and we'll start following it from there."

"Good." Was all Stephen said, all though his thoughts were going wild, his sixteen-almost seventeen year old son was out there running from the government with one of his own creations in his head. Stephen couldn't protect him, he worried for the girl that Chuck was with too, God knows what her own family was going through. He questioned her motives, what did she want with his son? Chuck hadn't even known her for that long.

Stephen shook his head, asking himself questions wasn't going to help anyone; he needed to take action and fast.

Meanwhile, Ellie was across town with Devon, nervously shuffling from foot to foot, waiting outside a darkened office room.

"El." Devon whispered, placing his hand on her shoulder, steadying her so that she couldn't continue to fidget. "Why are you so nervous?"

Ellie considered this for a moment. "Surely going to a private investigator to find my little brother whilst the CIA is also looking for him is some sort of criminal offence?"

"How are they going to find out?" Devon said. "Dexter's already working on it, he doesn't know what's going on with you and your family, he only knows of Chuck and that he needs to help us find him."

"Okay." Ellie replied, slipping her hand around Devon's which gave her a more relaxed feeling.

They were called into his office and they went in and came face to face with the private investigator himself, Dexter Minefield. He sounded more imposing than he looked; Ellie was both shocked and bewildered to find that she was taller than him, although the man was almost as wide as he was tall. Despite his cuddly frame, his eyes were small, dark and wide, he was completely bald and the light above them reflected on his head.

"Hi, you're Eleanor Bartowski, I assume?" His voice boomed questioningly.

"Yes." She tried her best to sound grown up and professional, but she felt more like nine than nineteen. She couldn't believe she had accepted for Devon to pay for this private investigator, she couldn't let her pride get in the way though if she wanted to find Chuck before the CIA, besides, Devon's parents were very wealthy.

"I have struck gold today." He said slowly, as if he was building up to something bigger. "It appears your younger brother took out quite a sum of money at a bank in Phoenix. According to the CCTV footage I have, they headed south from there, I have sent out my assistant investigator to go to that location and find out where they went from there."

Ellie nodded, impressed, this man didn't beat around the bush. "You're good." She noted, hope swelling inside of her.

"I will give you an update as soon as I can, Eleanor." He met her eyes and his gaze told her that he meant business. She owed a lot to Devon, he found this person for her, a man who could potentially find Chuck.

When they were outside the building again, armed with hope and contact details, Ellie kissed Devon passionately. "Thank you." She breathed.

"Anything for you babe." He smiled. "It would be awesome if he actually found Chuck; Dexter seems like a genuine dude."

"Yeah." Ellie nodded. "He does."

**Somewhere in Arizona**

Chuck and Sarah had swapped cars two hours ago; they were on a long, winding road and were very tired and restless.

"There has to be somewhere to stay around here." Chuck said, gazing longingly out of the window into the darkness.

"There isn't." Sarah felt her vision begin to blur. "This road goes on forever; we're going to have to pull over in the next service station just to get a few hours of sleep. I can't function for much longer." She admitted.

Chuck felt the strings on his heart begin to tug. "Are you sure we'll be safe?"

"I hope so, we've been as careful as we can be." She looked over at his sleepy chocolate eyes and felt drowsy, like she was drowning in them. She had never felt more like a child than at this moment, they were both responsible for each other, but no one was responsible for them.

"Are you alright, Sarah, you've been really quiet." Chuck wrapped his warm hand around her cold one.

"I'm just worried about our safety. I want to get as far away from Burbank as possible but he have to be stupid and human and need our sleep, I want to keep moving but I can't. I just want us to.. to be together." She stuttered, keeping her eyes on the road ahead.

"Me too. Sarah, I think that I'm falling-"Chuck's sentence was cut short by the loud sound of bullets being fired, suddenly the car veered sideways as the tires took the impacts of the shots thrown at them.

Their car stopped abruptly onto the side of the road, Sarah felt her body turn to ice and the last image she saw was of agents approaching their car before she blacked out completely.

**Ooh, did I really just leave you on a cliffhanger again? Sorry! I promise I will update again within a week of today. Anyway, please **_**review**_** and thank you for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

For a moment, darkness was all that Chuck could see, a blackness that was choking him like a fog, bewilderment overtook his mind and then gradually his mind started to form words that developed into rhetorical questions. _Where am I? _Was the main thing he was asking himself and then _why are my hands aching so much? _And then all of a sudden, like a blow to the head one question came screaming to the forefront of his mind, _where's Sarah?_

He opened his eyes wide, they stung for a moment due to the brightness of the room, the walls were pristine and white and contrasted vastly to the darkness he was just in, the floor too was white and marble, so harshly white and bright that he had to continue to blink a couple of times to let his eyes adjust.

_Where's Sarah? _He raised his head slowly, he half didn't expect to actually see her there sitting in front of him, but there she was. Gone was her red shirt and canvas shorts and her sunshine waves cascading down her shoulders, instead he found himself staring at a much more sober-looking unconscious version of Sarah. She was dressed in a black jumpsuit that covered almost every inch of her translucent skin, her hair had been pulled into a high ponytail. He longed to see her sea blue eyes open and full of life, her full lips were set into a grim line - she looked troubled.

"Sarah!" He whispered across the room. "SARAH!" He said louder again. He gazed at her long enough to see her chest rise and fall subtly. She was alive, at least. Chuck looked down at himself to see that he too was wearing a black jumpsuit, his arms were fastened painfully behind him and his feet were tied to either side of the steel chair.

_I should have been more careful, I should have protected her. _He told himself, but a small part of him said _you did, you took every precaution of keeping her safe. _

_If I was so careful, _a more daring thought came from the back of his mind, _then how did they find us?_

_I don't know, I don't know, I don't know._ And then it went on, tormenting himself with his own thoughts, thoughts of how they had got into this mess.. of how they were going to get themselves out of it.

He didn't even know who they had been captured by, the CIA? An enemy organization? The people from the forest. Whoever they were he gathered they would make an appearance shortly, he felt a heavy force fix itself onto his chest - fear. He looked over at Sarah and it only got heavier.

He tried calling her a few more times but she didn't even flinch, they must have tranqed her with a stronger dose than they gave him. Surely if he had this 'amazing' computer in his head then they could somehow escape. "Flash!" He told himself sternly, but it did no good.

He felt close to tears, he was almost a fully grown man and he was almost crying with frustration.

"Chuck?" Sarah's voice sliced through the emotional torture he was enduring and suddenly just for a second he forgot, he felt lighter than air, his heart rocketed into the sky.

Sarah looked at him with confusion etched across her beautiful features, she blinked like he did, to adjust her eyes to the light. "Where are we?"

"I don't know." He said slowly, trying to keep the growing panic out of his voice.

"We were knocked out.. They shot at the car." Sarah said, Chuck could almost see the memories forming together in her mind. He nodded.

"Yes... Oh God, I'm so sorry, Sarah, I never meant to get you in a situation like this. I would never dream of intentionally putting your life in danger. I should have never let you come with me, you could be back in Burbank right now, safe. Rather than tied up to a chair with no idea what is coming next. We're going to -"

"Chuck!" Sarah interrupted. He stopped suddenly, his eyes wide. "It's not your fault." She continued. "I put my own life on the line for you, it was my choice. We're not going to die, okay? We're going to find a way out of here." Chuck admired how strong, brave and optimistic she was, like he had taken some magic potion, he felt hope surging through his veins, they were going to get out of here. More than anything he wanted Sarah to escape rather than himself.

"I hope so." He said. "How do you feel, though?" He asked, concerned.

Sarah saw his eyes sparkle with warmth and curiousity, she felt the butterflies make a sudden reappearance in her stomach, fluttering all the way up to her chest and entwining themselves around her heart. She took a shaky breath, she couldn't tell him how she really felt right now, how she wanted his lips pressed against hers and how she wanted to feel his big strong arms around her slender frame.

"My hands ache a bit." She admitted. "And my head feels a bit fuzzy."

"Me too." He replied, he wanted to keep apologising to her for getting her here, but she would only say that this wasn't his fault, although he didn't agree with that statement. He wanted to finish telling her what he had been saying in the car last night, that he was falling in deeply in love with her. But now certainly was not the time.

"Halo." She said.

"Huh?" He replied.

"Look, up there." She indicated with her eyes something that Chuck hadn't noticed before, a small black logo, reading 'Halo' slap bang in the middle of the vast whiteness of the wall, the 'O' of the word had it's own dark halo hovering over it.

"I thought the word Halo was supposed to resemble something good or angelic." Chuck mused.

"Good people don't tie up teenagers." She made a fair point.

Chuck nodded in agreement. "I can't say I've ever heard of an organization called Halo before though."

"You wouldn't have, ." A dark penetrating voice filled the room.

Chuck and Sarah both looked over as one area of the wall twisted around and they were met by a tall, stocky, dark skinned man who entered the room in three quick strides. Followed behind him were two more men, both of a similar size but shorter than the stocky, dark one.

His pupils were black, there seemed to be not an inch of light in them. Chuck felt his eyes zoning out, and suddenly he was in his own mind, flashing. The dark skinned man was a double agent, the name he went by in the CIA was Alfie Waters, but the Halo agent's real name was Brad Silver. Chuck recognised his voice instantly as the voice he had heard talking to his father when Stephen discovered Chuck was the Intersect. He had been using Stephen to find out the true identity of who had downloaded the computer.

Chuck gasped, so that's how they knew he was the Intersect. "You tricked my father." He said before he could stop himself.

"Yes." Silver said with an evil grin. "Anything to find the Intersect. Your father was too trusting. Who knew that his own son would have downloaded the very thing he created?"

Chuck looked down. "What are you going to do to us?" He looked over at Sarah. "Please, do whatever you want to me but don't hurt her, she has nothing to do with it."

Silver's dark eyes shot from Chuck to Sarah, a small smirk played on his thin lips. "So young to be in love, Charles." He tutted. "It's gets you no where. You want to be a real man? Then don't give away your heart." He paced back and fourth and stopped by Sarah and ran his finger along her jaw-line, she flinched away. "Ah, I'm certain Miss Walker will be of some use to us." His eyes glinted.

"Don't touch her." Chuck snarled. "How did you find us?"

"Surely you aren't forgetting about the encounter you shared with some of my agents in the forest? They planted a tracker on your backpack."

Chuck grimaced. "What do you want from us?"

"You know what we want." One of the smaller men said, he had a tuft of blonde hair that fell over his piercing blue eyes. It reminded Chuck oddly of Bryce Larkin. "The Intersect."

"We don't know yet how to extract the Intersect, so we have no choice but to use you." Silver stated.

"What if I don't want to be used?" Chuck said, his gaze fell to Sarah, she looked calm and in control but he could see the slight tremor in her fingers.

"We have a proposition for you." The Bryce Larkin look-a-like said again. "Tell him the deal Silver."

"I will, Noah." Silver said rather impatiently whilst the other man stood watching like a hawk in the corner. "We propose that you stay here and work with us, and , too and that you both train as Halo agents so that we can use the Intersect within you to go about our business and take down the CIA."

"Never." Chuck said at the same time as Sarah said, "no."

"Are you sure?" Noah narrowed his eyes.

"Yes." They said in unison. They locked eyes across the room, Chuck could see what Sarah was saying, she was not going to work for evil. They would have to find a way to escape but first they would probably have to endure some torture.

"Find out what they know, Keyes." The man who had been avidly observing stepped forward and smiled slowly. Chuck began to shake. Torture? He had the lowest threshold of pain known to man but it wasn't that he feared, it was being forced to watch Sarah being hurt, that was the worst kind of torture there was.

**Phoenix, Arizona**

"Okay, so according to Dexter, the last cctv footage recorded sighting of Chuck and this Sarah girl was along this road." Devon said, looking at the map on Ellie's lap as they drove.

Ellie felt her heart swell with hope. She squeezed Devon's hand as they continued down the long, narrow road.

They failed to notice the black SUV following thirty yards behind them.

Twenty minutes later, Devon stopped the car abruptly. "Babe." He said through gritted teeth.

"What's wrong?" She whispered, too scared to raise her voice.

"There's a car pulled over over there, look!" He pointed over to a black BMW with flat tires, a dented door and with the windscreen smashed.

"That's the car from the footage on the CCTV camera, I'm sure, El." Devon said.

_No. No. No. This can't be happening. _Suddenly images flashed through her mind of her little brother, crumpled and unconscious. Maybe even dead. _Don't think that, Eleanor. _She told herself sternly as fear rushed through her veins.

Devon pulled over and stopped the car five metres or so from the BMW. Looking stronger than he felt he got out of the car, followed by Ellie.

"It's empty." Devon called

"Thank God." _Thank God, thank God, _she would rather him be missing than to find him dead.

"What now, babe?" Devon wondered, snaking his arm around her waist.

"I don't know." She honestly didn't.

Out of nowhere a black SUV pulled up and startled Ellie and Devon. Stephen Bartowski got out and approached them both. "Eleanor."

"Dad?"

"Mr Bartowski?"

"Ellie, stop looking for Chuck, it's illegal, it's the CIA's job to find him, not yours." Stephen said sternly.

"I'm his sister." Ellie replied, undeterred. "I'm going to find him before you do."

"I can't let you do that, I want to find him as much as you do, honey, but it's a dangerous world out there and there are dangerous people looking for your brother. I don't want you involved in this."

"Then what's going to happen when you find him, huh, Dad? He's going to be locked away." Ellie looked pained.

"The CIA need the Intersect, it's the most important piece of intelligence in the world. Once they find Chuck they're going to find a way to extract it from him." Stephen replied.

"And treat him like some sort of animal? I don't think so." She roared.

"Your search is over and that's the end of it."

**Halo Headquarters**

Their arms were secured above them to a low ceiling, their feet were fastened together by a thick rope.

Sarah squirmed as Keyes ran his knife along Sarah's throat.

"DON'T!" Chuck yelled. "Please don't."

"Then tell me what you know Bartowski, tell me all about the program in your head and about the things you have seen."

"Chuck, no!" Sarah choked. "Keep your mouth shut."

Keyes gave a devilish grin and sliced across Sarah's face. She screamed in pain.

"STOP!" Chuck shouted. Nothing was worth this. Keyes went to plunge the knife along Sarah's wrist, she shook heavily. "Okay, OKAY! I'll start training as a Halo agent, I'll do anything, just stop, please!"

"NO!" Sarah pleaded. "No, Chuck!"

"Just leave her alone." Chuck breathed.

"Very well, Mr Bartowski, come with me." Keyes's featured gave away his feeling of triumph.

He unchained Chuck's hands and feet, and then he pulled Chuck's hands behind his back and handcuffed them. He started to push Chuck out of the room as Sarah could only watch in emotional agony. Just before he disappeared from the doorway, he mouthed, "Trust me, Sarah."

**Another cliffhanger? Sorry! Let me know what you think and **_**review! **_**And if anyone has tumblr, I have a Chuck blog and my url is .com**


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay, so my excuses are probably useless here. All I can say is, I stopped feeling inspired. I've started college (we start college at 16 in the uk) and the work has been piling up.. I don't want to leave this story unfinished. I know it's been a long time but I hope you're still interested, although you may need to refresh your memory. Sorry again.. **

Trust him? How the hell was she supposed to stay calm and trust him when he was walking into a death trap? They needed to get out of here. If they had a use for Chuck then what the hell were they going to do with her? Stay calm, she told herself, panicking was not going to get her out of this situation. Sarah's hands were still bound uncomfortably above her head, it felt as though her arms were going to tear away from her body. This was inhumane. She had no idea that people could genuinely be this cruel. How long had she been hanging here without food? Without even using the bathroom. It was damn right degrading.

Sarah prayed to God they weren't hurting him. For the first time in her life she felt that it was instinct to place some elses life in order of importance before her own. Yes, she was young, but she knew there was no age limit when it came to being in... Why couldn't she say it? Their lives could end at any point and yet she couldn't admit to herself what she felt in her heart. She'd had it drummed into her her entire life that love was wrong. Love was bad and love was stupid. It brought nothing but pain and problems.

Interrupting her train of thought, the blank wall in front of her that she had been staring at for an unknown length of time suddenly started to revolve. The endless expanse of white was replaced with a metallic looking wall with the two halo agents standing in front of it. Agents Silver and Noah. Sarah absentmindedly observed that their names weren't menacing enough to suit their profiles. Then, properly acknowlegding them, anger surged through her like a volcano erupting on a desolate island.

"Where's Chuck?" She seethed. She knew not of fear, only adrenaline. It drove her to new heights of bravery, when it came to Chuck she fle like she could stare danger straight in the face and yell "boo!"

"He's safe. For now. That's the reason why we're here. We have some.. news." Silver's eyes narrowed menacingly and Sarah felt her body turn to ice.

"What?" She spat.

"Bartowski's skills are far more advanced than any of us anticipated. He is of great value and we cannot risk him being captured again-"

"He's not some prize winning pig at the county fare. He's a person." She could practically feel the venom dripping from her lips, her hatred was severe.

Silver smiled sarcastically. "As I was saying. We're moving him to a far more secure underground training facility which will help us to transform Mr Bartowski into the best weapon possible."

"WHAT?" Sarah screamed. "NO! NO! YOU'RE NOT TAKING HIM AWAY!" Tears formed into her blue eyes making them sparkle. "Please. You can't do this." Her heart began to race and her breathing started to quicken, which caused her whole body to tremble. She tried to move her useless arms stretched painfully above her. She was powerless. She was helpless.

"Oh come on, Sarah." Noah suddenly spoke up. His own blue eyes were glittering, he looked so much like an older version of Bryce that it was scary. "You don't think we're that heartless, do you?"

Silver let out a small, dark chuckle. "We're not as evil as you think. On his insistent request we're going to let him see you one last time. We have no choice as he said he'll refuse to co-operate with us if we don't."

"Oh." Sarah said through gritted teeth. "How generous of you."

"Glad to see you're coming around, Miss Walker. Bartowski will be along in a minute." Noah turned to the wall and pressed a button that made it rotate again. As they began to vanish from view, she heard Silver say "she won't be alive much longer after that."

Chuck was exhausted physically and mentally. For the past twelve hours they had been pushing and pushing him, showing him cards with symbols that caused him to flash over and over again. He felt like his brain had overheated. Between flashes and knocking out agents his thoughts were of Sarah. Was she hurt? His heart ached like nothing before he had ever felt, it was heavy with dread and fear of something happening to her. He knew he was just a few days away from being seventeen yet he was hopelessly in love. The punches to the gut and blows to the chest were nothing compared to the pain he encounted when thinking about something happening to her.

Then the bombshell dropped. Just fifteen minutes ago they told Chuck they were moving him to a more secure bunker. Everything before him just slowed right down, his brain suddenly refused to comprehend what they were saying. He heard the words, he was shaking his head even though the words yet still did not make sense. All he could picture was Sarah as he last saw her. Her blonde hair scraped back in a ponytail, her shimmering eyes despite her tired smile, with her long arms clamped above her head.

"NO!" He had shouted. "I'm not going anywhere without Sarah. Do you understand me? I will not help you, I won't let myself flash without her with me."

"She's not coming with you, Bartowski, we're going to a secret base. We don't need your little girlfriend tagging along that has as much use as a chocolate teapot." Silver moved closer to Chuck and was looking at him as though he was the most stupid person in the whole world. "She's nothing but a distraction."

"You're going to let her come or I won't be of any use to you. You think I can't control it, but I can. I've found it's tied to my emotions. Sarah is tied to my emotions. Without her, you have no intersect." If he had full control of his hands right now instead of them being tied painfully behind him, they would be balled up into frustrated fists.

Silver moved closer again, he was close enough to him that Chuck could see faint scars on his dark skinned face and the depth of his black eyes, the look of pure evil. Completely souless. Chuck shivered. "You are just a child, Charles. Do you really think I'm going to take orders from a CHILD? How about this, you work with us or we kill her."

"You dare. You dare touch her."

"Do you know how easy it would be to take a knife to that pretty little throat? Or to cut her wrists so that she slowly and painfully bleeds to death?" His smile was unhinged.

"Shut up! Shut up! Fine. Okay, just let me say goodbye to her." Of course it was anything but fine. But he was beginning to form a plan in his mind. It was barely a plan yet, just an unhatched egg on the verge of his subconscious. He needed them to leave. He needed to think. This plan could mean the difference between he and Sarah living or he and Sarah dying. "Let me say goodbye and I'll do whatever the hell you want."

"I'm sure we could work something out." With that, the two men exchanged a look, rose to their full height and sauntered out of the room, slamming the heavy metal door shut behind them with a large clang. Chuck was left alone in the creepy mirrored room, with only himself to gaze at. So much had happened in the past few days, yet he looked the same. His mental growth wasn't quite the same as his physical one. He took in his lanky frame, olive skin and mahogany curls. He looked into his own eyes as though he was relying on his reflection to come up with a solution for him, as though the young man in the mirror was somehow wiser with his innocent, wide set eyes and his brace covered teeth. Yet he knew he wasn't a child. He wasn't going to let Sarah die because of a mess he had gotten himself into.

Sarah was being pulled apart. Her body yearned to be free of the chains that bound her. It was stretching her as if she was about to be drawn and quartered. Her mind was caught in a vicious thinking circle that she couldn't escape. Thoughts that repeated Chuck's name. She hated being so useless. So much was going on and yet she was here.

Meanwhile Chuck was being led to where Sarah was being held. He was slightly less uncomfortable with his hands in front of him. A woman and a man walked alongside him whom he did not recognise. He knew what he had to do. He let out a small moan and squeezed his eyes shut as he fell to his knees. He let out crys of feigned pain as the two knelt beside him.

"What is it?" The woman asked. "What's wrong with you?"

"My head.. It.. hurts." He put his hands to her face and let his fingers slip into her hair and slip her loose hairgrip into his hand. "Help me.." He made it look as though he was clawing at the woman in sheer desperation. The woman, who didn't look that much older than him ran away to get help, leaving him with the burly man.

"I think it's easing up now." He staggered to his feet and curled his fists around the grip. A group of Halo agents gathered around him.

"What was that?" One of them asked.

"I've uh.. been getting them on and off. It's okay, I'm okay now. I think flashing too much gives me severe migranes." Chuck always had been a bad liar. They each glanced at one another, one shrugged and the rest moved away. Agent Keyes approached him.

"I should take you back." He started to lead Chuck the direction he came from.

"No. Please let me see her. One last time. We had a deal." He pleaded.

"Fine." He seemed more lenient than the others. More impatient, less professional.

They reached the rotating wall and Keyes stood next to him and pressed the button. It turned so fast that it made Chuck dizzy, but that all disappeared when he set eyes on her. Keyes vanished in his mind and he locked eyes with her and it was as though the air left his lungs and everything he had previously thought or felt in the past few hours didn't seem to matter. The urge to hold her was too much, her fragile gaze made him want to take her in his arms and make that fear melt away.

Chuck said her same the same time she said his. She felt her heart actually stop when she saw him. He was okay. A little worse for wear, yes, but nevertheless alive. Her eyes glistened as he moved towards her. Was this goodbye? The closer he came, the more her heart expanded, her skin grew hot like the electrifying humidity in the air right before thunder. Home was the word that came to mind.

Then in an instant, they were back there again. Keyes said from the corner of the room, "you've got one minute."

"One minute?" Chuck said. "Could you at least leave us alone?"

"Fifty-six seconds.." He tinkled.

"Are you okay?" Sarah asked him.

"Me? You're the one who's been locked up in the same position for the past twenty four hours." He moved closer to her.

She laughed despite herself. "I'm alright."

"I'm sorry." He said, his brown eyes swimming with unshed tears. He brought his bound hands up to her face as though he was carassing her cheek. He quickly glanced over at Keyes, he seemed unsuspicious. He quickly slipped the grip into Sarah's mouth and she gave him a strange look. "Trust me." He mouthed.

"Sarah?" Her eyes scanned his. "I'll save you later."

Tears ran down her cheeks. "I-"

"Times up!" Keyes shouted.

"That wasn't even a minute!" Chuck protested.

"I don't care, get out."

Chuck reluctantly gave her one last glance. She was good with locks. She could do this. The rest was up to him and his intersect.

**I seem to like my cliffhangers. Please ****review ****because every little one is like chocolate for the soul.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Chuck's heart was beating fast as they strode towards the transportation van. He wasn't even sure that he was capable of escaping. He was a lanky teenager with the muscles of a five year old boy. The men that surrounded him were at least two hundred and fifty pounds, and there were about eight of them. This thing was serious. It wasn't one of his video games. Chuck wished it was. The more he thought about it being real, the more he started to shake and the faster his heart erratically thumped. His feet felt heavy, the sky was so shockingly bright and blue that his eyes narrowed in pain. He had no idea how long he had been inside that building, but he felt like a vampire longing for the darkness.

He noticed the way that the rather large man lumbering along next to him swung his grazed fists, as though he was ready for combat at any time of the day. Chuck suspected that he even slept like that. The more he studied his surroundings, the more terrified he became. They were about ten meters away from the dreaded (totally inconspicuous) black van. He needed to think fast but fear was overriding him. His breathing grew heavier, his body felt like it was being weighed down by bricks, every part of his body was reluctant, fearful.

Chuck quickly realised he did need to think that this was a video game. Hell, that's what he did for a living. The less vivid real life was to him right now the better. He needed to be a hero, the hero he had always dreamed about as a child, Charles Carmichael was the alter ego he created in his head as a child, he was mighty and powerful, he was charming and he was fearless, everything Chuck wasn't. Chuck was going to have to find his inner Carmichael and fast.

They were less than two meters away now. The two men who were holding Chuck's arms were practically carrying him, which Chuck thought was rather odd considering how heavy he felt right now, but more mentally than physically. "Do that thing!" He told himself. "Flash!" He blinked. Nothing. He was running out of time. Suddenly an image appeared in his mind of Sarah as he last saw her, her face, her eyes, gazing into his. It was as though he had been lit up like a Christmas tree, the hot surge in his heart flew up to his brain like an electrical charge. He was doing it. Chuck was flashing.

Leave Chuck Bartowski and enter Charles Carmichael. He did a sudden forward flip with his hands still painfully pulled behind his back, but he felt nothing but pure adrenaline, it was as though love had suddenly transformed him into this. Sarah was the key. At that precise moment he was suddenly facing the troop of men and was merely a few inches away from them. One moved towards him with a gun, without thinking about it, Chuck removed it from his hand with a perfect roundhouse kick and then returned his other leg in the opposite direction and clocked him agonisingly in the chin, he heard a sickening click as the heavy man slapped down on the concrete floor.

This time two more men approached him from behind, both were armed and gaining on him. As though someone else was controlling him, Chuck did yet another back-flip, disarming the men behind him and sending them down to meet the ground. He must have hit them pretty hard. He moved towards them with his back facing them, as quickly as he possibly could, he squatted down and grabbed the gun from the dark skinned man's unconscious hand and clutched it in his own handcuffed ones.

Chuck had to act faster than fast, he angled his clamped together hands so that his left hand held his right wrist to steady the bulky gun. He placed his right finger over the trigger. He was furiously walking backwards as the five men approached him, guns at the ready. Mere seconds were passing yet Chuck felt as though time was slowing right down because as they fired bullets towards him, he dodged each one like some kind of superhero. He didn't have a millisecond to acknowledge what he was doing, because if he did then he could collapse with fear. In the blink of an eye he angled his body so that he was facing them side on and his gun was pointed to them. He shot five perfect bullets with precision, unfortunately, from his low angle, he could only manage about crotch height. He watched with a mixture of awe and disgust as each bullet hit each bulky man precisely in their manhood area. He winced as he saw the sheer pain in their faces and then the girlish screams of pain.

"Ouch." He thought. He began to back away as each of them in turn, fell to their knees in anguish. Unexpectedly, the back of his head erupted in pain and he found that he was on the floor himself, his skull throbbed as he rolled over so he was facing the sky. An imposing figure leaned over him. Silver. He held a gleaming gun in his own hands and pointed it towards Chuck, his eyes like the portal to hell. Chuck's body exploded with fresh fear, but he quickly placed his legs between Silver's and parted them so that the agent lost his balance and momentarily stumbled back. Chuck continued to roll over, in search of his weapon. He found in impossible to get to his feet. He was tiring of this whole not-having-the-use-of-his-hands thing. Silver's forehead glistened as he approached again. "They never give up, do they?" Chuck thought as the man's thick set lips parted.

"I need you, kid, so I ain't gonna kill you. But I can hurt you very badly so that you'll be begging me to. And for this little stunt, I'm gonna kill you're pretty little girlf-" Suddenly his sentence was cut short and his evil eyes were wide as he fell towards Chuck. Chuck rolled over as Silver's bleeding head collided with the road. He looked up in confusion and saw a slight, long legged figure looming over him clutching yet another, would you guess it, gun. But the gun went limp in the shadow's hand as it came closer to him.

"Sarah! Sarah! Oh My God, Sarah!" He said, the words rushing out of his mouth like a waterfall. Her face and her shirt were covered in blood. Chuck searched her face again and noticed a huge searing cut along her hairline, blood dripping down her cheeks and onto her clothing. "You're hurt!" He said, his heart aching for her.

"Chuck, come on, we don't have time!" She commanded. "Turn over." He turned over so that he was face to face with the ground. He felt her fiddling with the lock on his handcuffs, within seconds, his hands were free. He felt sweet release as his hands separated. She really was a master with locks. He pushed his palms to the ground and in an instant he was on his feet. He wanted to kiss her, the way he felt right now overrode everything, his heart took control of his mind. Her eyes searched his, so layered with depth and emotion, sprinkled with light relief and a little something that mirrored his.

"Thank you." He breathed. Breaking the moment, the heavy steel door on the building swung open and a heard of agents dressed in black were flying towards them.

"CHUCK! Let's go!" Sarah yelled, her own heart racing with fear, pulsating so fast that it sent waves of adrenaline through her body. She took his hand and all at once they were racing ahead. Chuck's legs were moving so fast and his feet were coming in contact with the ground so hard that he felt as though he was going to fall over, but he kept moving. Sarah was insanely fast at running, her long lithe legs stretched out in front of her at lightening speed, she was practically pulling Chuck along.

"The van." She said suddenly, remembering her hair pin. She glanced to the side and he nodded. She didn't have time to look behind them, they flew towards the van and they tumbled in together. Sarah quickly jimmied the lock, forced the car into gear and slammed her foot down on the accelerator, the van surged forward and they were off. Chuck glanced at the review mirror in panic and saw the agents running along behind the van, but even they could see it was useless. He spotted a car a few paces behind them and knew it would only be a matter of moments before they caught up with them. Sarah too glanced and the mirror and her eyes met Chuck's briefly, she knew they had little time. She pushed her foot as far down as it would go and they made it onto the gravely road, the car squeaked in protest as she took a corner clumsily due to the speed making her inaccurate.

"Sarah we're screwed!" Chuck whispered, his voice fueled by panic.

"Don't freak out!" She said, surprising him with the level of calmness in her voice. "We just have to lose them." As she said this, she realised she had no idea where they were or where the nearest highway was, she had only passed her driving test a few months before, she didn't even own her own car and now suddenly she was driving at way over a hundred miles an hour. Blind. She was scared, she was absolutely terrified to her core. Yet she knew Chuck was a very empathetic being, if she panicked, he would. She knew he felt the need to protect her but for once she was going to protect him. Knowing they were very soon about to be followed she needed to put as much distance between the halo agents and herself as possible. She was aware of her and Chuck's labored breathing as she sped along.

A forty-five minutes a several miles later they came to a roundabout.

"Which way do we go?" Chuck said, his voice shaky.

"I don't know, I'm just going to go with my gut." Sarah replied, she circled the roundabout and took the fourth turning.

"I guess there's a one in four chance they'll pick the right turning." His stomach was churning.

Sensing his discomfort, she placed her hand over his, his warm skin calmed her, the panic and fear momentarily dispersed as he gently moved his thumb back and forth and her skin sparked from his touch. Her body trembled slightly, she needed to she needed to focus on getting them both out of this, so she patted his hand gently and put hers back on the steering wheel. How did he elicit such sensations from her that she didn't even know that she could produce?

They continued to move at a lightening pace over the next few minutes, Sarah knew that their time in this vehicle was limited and she told Chuck as much.

"What are we supposed to do?" Chuck wondered, eyeing the cars passing them on the highway, they still had no idea where they were and didn't recognise any of the place names.

"I think we're going to need to dump this van somewhere, they could be tracking it for all we know." She said, taking one hand off the steering wheel and touching her forehead, she had, for a moment forgotten about her deep cut which she acquired whilst trying to escape.

"You know, you're really good at this whole 'kidnap' slash 'runaway' situation." He admitted.

"Says you, Mr Kickass?" She smiled, despite herself.

"It isn't me though, it's this thing inside my head." He said deflatedly, checking behind them again in the review mirror.

"You can do anything Chuck, I've seen you in action. You're amazing on you're own, you're.." She didn't take her eyes from the road, worried in case if she looked at him she would chicken out and not say what she wanted to say. "-smart, kind and funny. Anything you wanted you could have." Her eyes strayed from the road and met his, they were glistening in a way that caused hundreds of butterflies in her stomach to suddenly form a tornado, swarming around her heart and enveloping her with warmth.

"You're not so bad yourself you know." He put his hand on her knee and she lapped her fingers around his.

"Thanks." She turned back into practical Sarah."There should be something station coming up along here soon.. hang on look there's a huge sign." They both paused from the conversation to look at the large sign that spelled the words 'Oklahoma'.

"Oklahoma?" Chuck exclaimed. "How the hell did we get here?"

"Blame the halo agents." She looked behind them again.

"Look! A Mcdonalds! What the hell are the odds of that?" He grinned at her, a smile that made her want to float up into the clouds without a care in the world. "Let's ditch this thing in the car park." Then his face darkened. "We don't have a penny to our names, what the hell are we supposed to do?"

"We'll worry about that later." She said. "We need to focus on now. We're going to need to be hitchhikers for the afternoon."

"Hitchhikers? How the hell are we going to know whose car we're going to be getting into? Or if a car will even stop for us?" He noticed that he sounded like a little girl. "Man up, Bartowski." He told himself angrily.

"Well I don't think we're going to meet anyone more evil than those halo agents. Besides, you have that flashy thing going on." She said as they pulled into the restaurant car park.

"Good point." He realised that the intersect worked because of Sarah, so if it came to her life being in danger, he knew he would flash.

They got out of the car, their legs feeling relief of being straightened again after being in the vehicle for such a long period of time. Sarah walked around to Chuck's side of the van and one minute she was looking into his eyes and the next minute he was kissing her up against the hot metal, burning her neck slightly, but she didn't care. The mixture of adrenaline and the relief of still being alive radiated through their lips, their bodies growing hot with want. The intensity increased, the hot fire that burned within them grew to new heights and exploded as their hands roamed one another's bodies. Her hands running desperately through his wild hair, his hands around her waist, pulling her closer, as close as he could get to her. The proximity between them added fuel to the fire, the world around them ceased to exist. The heartbreaking moment when they had to break away to breathe was when Sarah remembered they needed to get out of here and fast.

"Come on Chuck!" She said, her breathing frantic. She hadn't a clue what had come over her, but her heart had yet to return to earth, he smiled his cute, if a bit sheepish, half smile at her and grabbed her hand as they raced off down the long country road, their legs somehow carrying them although they hadn't had a moment of sleep, or a crumb of food to fuel them, but somehow, they ran.

Fifteen minutes later when their running had changed from jogging to walking, they decided between them that this was the place to stop to hitch a ride. All around them were fields and fields of emerald blades and the endless road stretching in front of them. The sky was a dull, cloudless blue, the air was dry and not a car was in sight.

A further hour or so later, a car had not passed, they were beginning to grow thirsty, as the absence of clouds provided and endless stream of sun to parch them.

"Well this is fun." Chuck said weakly. Sarah shot him a look, and was about to say something when she heard the faint grumble of an engine in the distance. He heard it too and looked hopefully at her. They stuck their hands out as the Crown Victoria approached them. To their delight the ocean blue car stopped and a rather large man with short, messy brown hair and humorous blue eyes looked out at them.

"Where ya goin'?" He grunted slightly, a grunt that should have warned Chuck and Sarah off of him, but they sensed a warmness beneath that, something about this man made them want to trust him.

"Wherever you're going." Chuck spoke up.

"We.. just need to get out of here." Sarah added.

The man shrugged. "Okay."

"I'm Chuck, by the way, and this is Sarah."

"My name is John Casey, get in."

**So is this John Casey just an ordinary nice guy.. Or does he have a secret too? Thanks for reading, and if you can spare a moment please leave a ****review!**


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